Netflix managed to freak out some Android users who noticed that the popular streaming app was tracking their physical activity and movements without explaining why. The company told The Verge that it is using the data as part of an experiment to explore new ways to optimize video streaming while physically moving. It can be both daily walks and scheduled movements like daily commutes.
Cellular connection speeds can often vary greatly when a user is crossing city streets or taking a bus or train. Thus, it seems Netflix is ββlooking for ways to intelligently adjust video quality based on user activity to avoid buffering or other issues when watching content. Perhaps the company wanted to increase buffering when motion was detected, or switch the application to low bandwidth mode. Of course, the user is free to download series and movies in advance for later offline viewing, but sometimes it's easy to forget about it.
Hey why does your android app want physical activity data?
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Netflix says that testing of this technology has already ended. The experiment was conducted only on Android devices and only for a limited group of customers, and the company does not currently plan to roll out the collection of physical activity data to a wider audience.
I think Netflix would have avoided misunderstandings if they had simply told subscribers directly that they made certain changes to the application with a clearly stated purpose. Instead, people have found that Netflix is ββasking permission to collect physical activity data on Android, which is pretty strange behavior for a streaming app. In some cases, users were not even required to approve data collection. Such large companies would do well to become more transparent about customer privacy.
Source: 3dnews.ru