Netflix updates privacy policy

News
#1

Just more of an FYI…

https://help.netflix.com/legal/privacy

I don’t have the old version to diff out, but this jumps out (under “Information we collect automatically”):

device IDs or other unique identifiers, including for your network devices, and devices that are Netflix capable on your Wi-Fi network;

Which legally – if you accept – means you are consenting to them probing your network and the devices on that network, whatever network and wherever that might be, and building profiles. Which I assume means collecting hardware addresses/MACs, and sharing those in unspecified ways.

If you don’t accept, you have to cancel your registration or membership.

Perhaps stating the obvious: If your devices do not perform hardware address randomization (typical of wired connections, less so on wifi), this of course is one way of being tracked across services if Netflix shares this information with third parties.

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#2

Guest Wi-Fi immediately comes to mind to avoid this issue. Most routers these days support a guest Wi-Fi that you can set up easily to basically create two separate network areas. You’d have to set this up upfront but should be pretty effective (provided you do keep your devices on your “regular” Wi-Fi"). I don’t know however if this also works for devices wired through ethernet.

Still, it really sucks balls that they do this for no good reason. As most people won’t even understand what this means even if they gave a shit about it, they can get away with it.

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#3

Guest network is a good option. Or if you have a router where you can stick it on its own VLAN by itself, so that you don’t put your guests at risk…

#4

That would also help with the ethernet issue. As for other guests I would give them access to the “regular” Wi-Fi network, although there’s also a risk they’d log-in to Netflix or run some other software that scans the network like some antivirus (at least on desktops).