Dawn C. Chmielewski reports:
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it easier for people to share their video viewing habits on Facebook, even as it failed to take action on a broader email privacy law.
The amendment to the Video Privacy Protection Act would allow companies like Netflix to obtain a blanket consent from consumers before sharing information with their Facebook friends about what movies or TV shows they’re watching.
Read more on The Los Angeles Times.
The Senate needs to still vote on the bill.
When the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the bill last month, they had added amendments that would also update ECPA. The House did not deal with those provisions, as I understand it. So the lobbyists for Netflix and Facebook-minded folks got a partial win, while privacy advocates got …. nothing good.