MoviePass, the app that allows you to watch a movie in theaters each day for the low price of $10 per month, is unsurprisingly planning to use your location data to make money.
As TechCrunch points out, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe recently told an audience at a Hollywood event that MoviePass is collecting and monetizing through location information.
"We get an enormous amount of information. We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards," said Lowe.
MoviePass, which is owned by a data analytics firm, has made no secret of the fact that it plans to use data generated from subscribers to make money. "There are dozens and dozens of businesses like ours that invest in building a large subscriber base," Lowe told Recode in early February. "Netflix buys $8 billion of content a year, and believe me, they have to borrow the money to do it. Or companies like Facebook -- it's free, but they're monetizing all the advertising and all the data about you. That's exactly what we are [doing]."
While MoviePass has been transparent about how it plans to make money, most people are likely not aware of the extent of the data the company collects. As TechCrunch says, it's likely users assumed MoviePass would collect data like ticket sales, movie choice, promotions, and more, rather than detailed location data that tracks your movement before and after seeing a film.
MoviePass's privacy policy says that the app requires access to location when selecting a theater, and that it makes a single request for location coordinates. There's no mention of ongoing tracking, so it's not clear if this is something the MoviePass app is doing on the sly, if such tracking has yet to be implemented, or if the CEO's comments were exaggeratory. MoviePass(R) requires access to your location when selecting a theater. This is a single request for your location coordinates (longitude, latitude, and radius) and will only be used as a means to develop, improve and personalize the service. MoviePass(R) takes information security very seriously and uses reasonable administrative, technical, physical and managerial measures to protect your location details from unauthorized access. Location coordinate data is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology into password-protected databases. iOS users who are concerned about MoviePass collecting excessive data can restrict access to their location on the device level. To do so, open the Settings app, navigate to Privacy, and then choose Location Services. From there, select MoviePass.
You can opt to change your location setting to "Never," "While Using the App," and "Always." You'll probably want to leave it on "While Using the App," as location information is required when making a ticket purchase. Alternatively, you can toggle "Never" on and off whenever you use the MoviePass app for further security.
I’m back to wondering who wants all this worthless data and why they’re willing to pay so much for it.
I use Adblock everywhere. I don’t see ads. One sales email and you end up in the spam file along with about 300 other emails every day. I don’t pick up the house phone any more. I don’t go anywhere interesting.
Maybe you send me a check directly and I’ll buy your stuff.
-------------------------------- Life is short. Play with your dog.
MoviePass announced on Friday it’s shutting down the discount ticketing service on Sept. 14. Shares of MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics dropped 10% Friday afternoon, though the stock trades for a fraction of a penny.
MoviePass notified subscribers that it plans to close down the service because its “efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date.” It has formed a strategic review committee, made up of the company’s independent directors, to explore “strategic and financial alternatives” for the company.
Among the options it’s considering are a sale of the company in its entirety, a sale of the company’s assets, including MoviePass, Moviefone and MoviePass Films, as well as the possibility of a reorganization of the company. Helios and Matheson Analytics noted that any transaction would include the “assumption or settlement” of any of its liabilities.
Prior to the service’s closure, MoviePass had been struggling for more than a year. Last March, MoviePass launched a revamped version of its unlimited plan, which let users watch one movie per day for $9.95 per month, as part of an eleventh-hour attempt to revive the subscription service. However, the service saw its subscriber base plummet from more than 3 million members to about 225,000 as of April 2019.
Additionally, MoviePass last month laid off at least seven of its employees, bringing the total staff down to about 12 people, according to Business Insider. That’s after the company was forced to add restrictions to the app in an effort to slow its cash burn, including limiting users to four movies per month, instead of being able to watch one movie per day. Helios and Matheson also took out sizable loans to cover its ballooning losses.
Last October, then-New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood opened a probe into Helios and Matheson’s business dealings, alleging the company misled investors regarding its financials.
