President Obama has finally signed a bill which allows you to legally share information about which videos you’re watching on Netflix direct to Facebook.
The Hill reports that the bill, signed yesterday, sets right the decrepit laws that previously banned Netflix-to-Facebook sharing. As a refresher of the problem:
https://gizmodo.com/netflix-will-finally-probably-publish-what-you-watch-5970581
The 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act prohibits publishing video rental history. The bizarre law was motivated by paranoid politicians (Robert Bork), and makes it legally complicated for services like Hulu and Netflix to integrate social features that we’re used to from other services. (Spotify, for example, publishes the songs you play without thinking twice.)
The amendment means that your rental history can be published, if you agree to authorize it. Netflix already has Open Graph features ready to roll out on Facebook but had previously been waiting to implement them, for fear of litigation. Soon, you can expect an intriguing insight into your friends’ viewing habits. Brace yourselves. [The Hill]
