MoviePass CEO now says app never tracked user location
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe appears to be backpedaling on recent comments that suggested the movie-a-day app continuously tracks users' locations after they visit a theater, saying in a new interview that he was mistaken in what data his company gleans from customers.
Lowe in an interview with Variety on Monday said his earlier statements regarding the MoviePass app's location gathering capabilities were incorrect.
"I said something completely inaccurate as far as what we are doing," Lowe said. "We only locate customers when they use the app." He added, "If you get in your car and drive five miles, we don't know where you are or where you are going."
The last sentiment appears to be a direct rebuttal of comments Lowe made at the Entertainment Finance Forum earlier this month in his talk "Data is the New Oil: How will MoviePass Monetize It?"
"We get an enormous amount of information," Lowe said at the event. "We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards, and so we know the movies you watch. We know all about you."
As expected, the remarks raised the ire of privacy advocates. According to Lowe, however, only a "half a dozen" customers cancelled their subscriptions over privacy concerns.
MoviePass attempted to salvage Lowe's apparent mixup in a follow-up statement to media outlets, saying the company is "exploring utilizing location-based marketing as a way to help enhance the overall experience by creating more opportunities for our subscribers to enjoy all the various elements of a good movie night."
In clarifying what data MoviePass does collect, Lowe today said the app only accesses a device's onboard GPS or positioning subsystem when a user searches for a nearby participating theater and when they check in to a theater. The methodology is more in line with company's privacy policy, which states location data is collected in a "single request" when a user selects a theater.
Two days after Lowe's initial comments came to light, MoviePass removed an "unused app location capability" in an update to its iOS app. The changes were made in consultation with Apple, Variety reports.
Prior to the update, MoviePass used all three of Apple's default location access settings, including "never," "while using the app," and "always." According to Lowe, MoviePass never utilized the "always" setting, saying, "We never used it, and it was confusing to have it there."
If and when MoviePass decides to implement location tracking for its movie night experience, the company will ask users to opt in or opt out of the feature, Lowe said.
Lowe in an interview with Variety on Monday said his earlier statements regarding the MoviePass app's location gathering capabilities were incorrect.
"I said something completely inaccurate as far as what we are doing," Lowe said. "We only locate customers when they use the app." He added, "If you get in your car and drive five miles, we don't know where you are or where you are going."
The last sentiment appears to be a direct rebuttal of comments Lowe made at the Entertainment Finance Forum earlier this month in his talk "Data is the New Oil: How will MoviePass Monetize It?"
"We get an enormous amount of information," Lowe said at the event. "We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards, and so we know the movies you watch. We know all about you."
As expected, the remarks raised the ire of privacy advocates. According to Lowe, however, only a "half a dozen" customers cancelled their subscriptions over privacy concerns.
MoviePass attempted to salvage Lowe's apparent mixup in a follow-up statement to media outlets, saying the company is "exploring utilizing location-based marketing as a way to help enhance the overall experience by creating more opportunities for our subscribers to enjoy all the various elements of a good movie night."
In clarifying what data MoviePass does collect, Lowe today said the app only accesses a device's onboard GPS or positioning subsystem when a user searches for a nearby participating theater and when they check in to a theater. The methodology is more in line with company's privacy policy, which states location data is collected in a "single request" when a user selects a theater.
Two days after Lowe's initial comments came to light, MoviePass removed an "unused app location capability" in an update to its iOS app. The changes were made in consultation with Apple, Variety reports.
Prior to the update, MoviePass used all three of Apple's default location access settings, including "never," "while using the app," and "always." According to Lowe, MoviePass never utilized the "always" setting, saying, "We never used it, and it was confusing to have it there."
If and when MoviePass decides to implement location tracking for its movie night experience, the company will ask users to opt in or opt out of the feature, Lowe said.
Comments
yeah right.
I doubt it’s going to work ...
Now, if you define tracking a user location as even a single point, then they clearly do that as the app needs to know you're within 100 yards of your theater in order to allow you to select a film for your theater. This is a basic measure to help keep the system from being abused.
MoviePass 8 months strong and at $7 a month (yes, per month, as I bought the annual fee.), it's an amazing service. If they wanted me to watch a stupid ad video and complete a survey after each movie before I used it again I'd do considering how much money this is saving me over regular ticket prices.
A simpler explanation would be that he didn't anticipate that such bragging would have had significant consequences, both in users removing the application and potentially receiving scrutiny from Apple.
Another face for his customers.
Think I’ll give it a miss.
Mildly disappointed that the CEO hasn't blamed CNN (somehow) for the "misunderstanding." Doing so would have ensured hisses and boos and quick acceptance on the part of techie boyz.
...in what world did he think that didnt sound utterly creepy and undesirable? As CEO having his finger on the pulse of his customers is part of his job. Knowing what is creepy and what is not creepy. Sounds like he's not a very good CEO... That, or users of the service aren't his customers and are just part of their product.
...for #1, so how often is a desired movie not available on MP? For #2, you have to drive out to the theater to check-in -- how often do you get there and find you can't check-in?
Perhaps less of an issue with the big AMC chains, but my network theater is a smaller indy.
On #2, the only time I had a problem checking in was on Christmas Holiday weekend. The servers were swamped, but not a problem otherwise.
Additionally, I've never used the app outside of the range of the movie theater to check movie times. Not that it's a bad option and I should probably ditch the Flixster app I've had on my iPhone for 9(?) years now, but I just ask Alexa to tell me what's playing and what times if I'm doing busy work around the house or (most likely) just hit my Safari bookmark on my Mac to see a list of movie times.
Surprisingly, a 3 screen theater that usually does independent, artsy, and foreign film started taking MoviePass a few months ago. This was surprising to me because they've always been only ever accepted cash and check and yet now they'll accept the MoviePass MasterCard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I assume they now take debit and credit cards, but I haven't been back there since they've only been showing the academy award nominee as of late, which I caught in other theater with stadium seatings with reclining seats.
Except for those handful of AMC theaters that MoviePass has excluded, the theaters seem to like MoviePass since it's bring in more ticket sales, and since users feel like they're getting the movie for free they're more likely to buy concessions or more concessions as a result, at least from what I've heard, even thought that's not the case for me a I gave up getting expensive junk food at the movies about the same time I got on board with MoviePass—just a coincidence.