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Can't you just use their website to buy tickets instead? That's how I still buy mine. Buying things through apps is really overrated. You have mobile and desktop Safari instead and I have location services disabled for 90% of the apps on my phone and every site in Safari.
 
How exactly is MoviePass getting information about how I go to the movies and how I leave the movies - if it's set to only use location services when the app is open?

I mean, personally I don't really give a toss if MoviePass knows this. I mean, yeah - I went to dinner, and then I went home. Congrats, MoviePass. But if I don't have the option to disable this, that seems to go against what iOS's Location Services are saying...

Either way, love my MoviePass.

A company this lax/shifty about data collection is surely lax about security. Have fun having your location broadcast to anyone that wants it. Or probably more importantly, a solid indication that you aren't home during a specific timeframe.

After MoviePass realizes that the big theater chains are not going to buy their data, guess what happens? They find someone else that wants it and sells it to them.
 
Look at all those hypocrites on here being like „i dont care“ yet if it was called „Google Movie Pass“ y‘all would loose your pants over it

Werd. People get up in arms about privacy but when you point out how much data they give Google, they always have an excuse. "I don't care if they read my email. Go for it. Nothin' in there that matters." Now if that was anyone else reading their email they'd lose their minds.

It's amazing how much people are willing to give up in return for a few little free services like Gmail or Maps. They don't seem to realize just how much Google tracks them (such as right now when they're on MacRumors) and even the blocking software they think protects them doesn't stop them from being tracked everywhere they go.
 
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Isn't Apple a little better than Android in this regard anyway? Doesn't the app have to go through Apple approval process? I have MoviePass and love it!
I do have it set to "Only while in use" but would closing the app completely out help?
 
People enjoy using mobile devices that are connected to Internet and that run software from companies which have a substantial income from services. Then people don't like it when their private data is used. Well, it's you who decided that having your private data connected to Internet was cool... don't protest now.
 
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Er.... how is it a pain? Pick theater, Pick movie, pick time, hit "check in", and then use the card to buy the ticket like any other card. So simple it's a joke (kinda like your analogy which makes about zero sense!).

It's a pain because the real process for most people is to:
  1. Drive to theater(!)
  2. Pick a movie and time
  3. Check in, which loads the appropriate dollar amount onto the card
  4. Purchase ticket
It's not so bad if you're already near the neighborhood, but if you're like most people you probably want to purchase a ticket for a future showtime. I just canceled my MoviePass subscription when I read about how they're using their paying customers as leverage to negotiate deals with movie theaters and distributors, and signed up for Sinemia. It's basically the same idea as MoviePass, but limits you to two screenings a month. The subscription fee is slightly more (if you're paying monthly), but you get access to any screening, not just 2D. I haven't actually used it yet, so it could have its own set of drawbacks. *Fingers crossed* that this is a better experience.
 
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Might be missing something, if you set an App to track location only when app open, what’s the problem. Open MoviePass App only at the Theater, get the ticket, enter the Theater, close the App. Done tracking. Missing something?
 
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It is such a weird business model. They are just burning through cash paying for tickets for customers. And their plan to eventually squeeze the theaters because they have a ton of the theater's their customers signed up and they've taught the customers that movies are basically the same thing as Spotify seems bad for the movie industry (if it works) and very bad for MoviePass's investors (because it probably won't work).

But boy if I had more free time I would sign up for this and try to see a movie out once a week.
 
I haven’t and probably won’t bother with MoviePass or its imitators. I can usually find fandango or AMC gift cards for 25% off or more, and that lets me book at home (and reserve seats at the theater I frequent).

I think it would only be worth it if you see more than 2 movies a month.
 
Ok, but let's think about this. We're not talking abut identity theft. What is the harm with sharing personal data? Sure, I can see some folks value their privacy (for various reasons), but outside of conspiracy theories and insecurity, who cares that they know where you went to eat, etc.? It will be used for targeted marketing, which is already happening via Chrome and lots of other apps. I just don't see the REAL harm in this tracking. I may be looking at this too simply, so please enlighten (and scare) me!

The more data you have out there, the more convincing an identity thief can be, and the more under the radar they can be before you realize that anything is wrong. Correlating seemingly disparate data is a key ingredient to effective identity theft.

As I mentioned in another reply, at some point MoviePass will come to terms with the fact that the big theater chains are not going to buy their data, so they'll have to sell it to someone. What if that someone is, say, the government? They don't have anything to sell you but they'd sure value personal data on the citizenry. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination, but aside from not wanting my personal info and location history to be available to corporations, I especially don't want that info to be easily available to any government agency that wants it.

And spare me your 'If you have nothing to hide ...' arguments. Example. You live in California or Colorado and smoke a bit of weed. The feds decide to exercise their muscle and bust casual weed smokers under federal laws that (they think, or want to test) conflict with state laws. Do you want the government to know you've visited the dispensary down the street every Tuesday at 2 pm for the last two months?

This type of data collection and use isn't necessarily about what's happening here and now, but the climate of things in the future. There are states in the US that are very much (for example) anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-whatever, and allowing rampant personal data collection, especially location and spending habits, give whatever oppressors there might be fuel for whatever lame-brained schemes they come up with.

It's not limited to governments, either. You could, say, be turned down for a job before you even interview with a place because of where you live, where you shop, what your hobbies are, etc., stuff that's nobody's business.
 
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A company this lax/shifty about data collection is surely lax about security. Have fun having your location broadcast to anyone that wants it. Or probably more importantly, a solid indication that you aren't home during a specific timeframe.

After MoviePass realizes that the big theater chains are not going to buy their data, guess what happens? They find someone else that wants it and sells it to them.

Oh good grief. Do you have an alarm system? You know every time you set it, you're broadcasting to some rogue monitoring station employee that your house is empty? Do you ever use Uber? I hope you set your neighbor's address as your pick-up location otherwise rogue Uber drivers will break into your house and steal your cat!

I understand privacy, but people are so quick to take it to the next level it's insane....
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I haven’t and probably won’t bother with MoviePass or its imitators. I can usually find fandango or AMC gift cards for 25% off or more, and that lets me book at home (and reserve seats at the theater I frequent).

I think it would only be worth it if you see more than 2 movies a month.

It's worth it if you only see ONE movie a month, given that I don't know anywhere that has movies for less than a $9.95 monthly fee MoviePass takes (not to mention many of us who bought it at Costco for $89.95 for a year).

Heck, during the Oscars season you may go see five movies in a month, pretty easily. No matter where MoviePass ends up eventually, it's impossible to argue that right now it's not a good value for people that like going to movies.
 
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"MoviePass App Tracks Your Location Before and After Movies", If Location Services Are Set To Always

Don't really care, but cool to know. Pretty neat how companies have figured out how to monetize on data rather than charging us. Sounds creepy but as long as this makes the movie experience better and companies produce better movies based on what we watch along with security of our personal info, I'm in.

I listened to an interview with the CEO, man they've really pissed off AMC. Out of the blue this company has so much control on the movie theaters in less than a year. They shut down movie pass to select high attendance AMC theaters just to show AMC the numbers that they do indeed affect their growth in popcorn sales and they can direct customers to other theaters instead in order to leverage AMC into making a deal with them in profit sharing. Other companies have made deals to share sales and data. This is reason why MoviePass can survive with the ridiculously low subscription model. It's like Netflix, they know when we watch, what we watch, and where we watch.
Actually Moviepass doesn't have the power you think they do. They can be shut down very easily. The card they are using is like any other credit card.. HOWEVER, the little 1's and 0's can be blocked by the theaters. This is how AMC accomplished their block at their high traffic locations. Even small town theaters in my area have flat out told me they have blocked that card as well. Very very easy to do! These guys are also bypassing Apple's subscription based services which is also a no no, so Apple gets zero dollars from them. All in all, they are very shady and I wouldn't put any trust in their business model.
 
One of the best purchases I've ever made. I got in on a sale they were having for $6.95/mo. That means I have to go to the movies only about 7 times to make my money back.

How are you making your money back? Unless someone is paying you $1 per movie to offset the $6.95/mo cost for MoviePass, you can't be making your money back.
 
Actually Moviepass doesn't have the power you think they do. They can be shut down very easily. The card they are using is like any other credit card.. HOWEVER, the little 1's and 0's can be blocked by the theaters. This is how AMC accomplished their block at their high traffic locations. Even small town theaters in my area have flat out told me they have blocked that card as well. Very very easy to do! These guys are also bypassing Apple's subscription based services which is also a no no, so Apple gets zero dollars from them. All in all, they are very shady and I wouldn't put any trust in their business model.


I think you have your facts a little off about the high traffic AMC theaters.

Also, why would any theater block them when they're getting full value from MoviePass?
 
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I went into moviepass knowing that they would try to collect as much data about me as they can, and that the data they have access to is not all that personal. I assume whenever I watch pretty much anything, a dozen other companies already know what/when/where/how (and they can probably guess as to why). This moviegoing data is not personal enough for me to care. The enjoyment moviepass provides me and the money it’s saving me make it well worth it.
 
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Oh good grief. Do you have an alarm system? You know every time you set it, you're broadcasting to some rogue monitoring station employee that your house is empty? Do you ever use Uber? I hope you set your neighbor's address as your pick-up location otherwise rogue Uber drivers will break into your house and steal your cat!

I understand privacy, but people are so quick to take it to the next level it's insane....
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No alarm system, I take the bus, and how the heck did you know I have a cat?

Rob Gronkowski had his house looted while he was playing in the Super Bowl. Just sayin' that the world knew where he was at the time so ...

With all the data breaches we have now, this personal/location data could easily be used in creative ways. Let's say Target has another breach that spills your address and what you just purchased. A phisher could concoct a pretty convincing email that mentions a purchase you just made and offers perhaps a second one at half-off, so you click the link thinking it's from Target. And don't say 'I'm not that dumb' because you are, everyone is.
 
No alarm system, I take the bus, and how the heck did you know I have a cat?

Rob Gronkowski had his house looted while he was playing in the Super Bowl. Just sayin' that the world knew where he was at the time so ...

With all the data breaches we have now, this personal/location data could easily be used in creative ways. Let's say Target has another breach that spills your address and what you just purchased. A phisher could concoct a pretty convincing email that mentions a purchase you just made and offers perhaps a second one at half-off, so you click the link thinking it's from Target. And don't say 'I'm not that dumb' because you are, everyone is.

Yes yes, Super-Famous person gets robbed because he played in the Superb Owl (woot!). That's your argument? Who's to say other family members aren't home?

There's only so much paranoia I can handle in one day.
 
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I'd still totally sign up for this if I watched enough movies. Sounds like a fair trade to me. But I'll turn off any location tracking possible just to save battery.
 
Your data is worth almost nothing in real life, but MoviePass is paying you up to $15/day (depending on your ticket prices) for data on where you are.

How cheap do you have to be to throw that kind of money away?

I bought a MP for my parents, and they've seen like 4 movies in the last week. The problem MP is going to have is that their audience is going to skew heavily to retired seniors; at least 2 more couples they know are MP users.
 
Don't people realize that even everything you watch on TV is being tracked by your cable Co.?
 
AMC, other movie theaters, and studios have a belief that MoviePass devalues the price of movies. I mean, $7.99 for all the movies you can watch? If you watch 30 movies a month that's like a quarter per movie. Does it matter that the theatre actually gets paid?

Not to the theaters. They deal with perception as well as reality. And they don't want their product to be devalued in the eyes of the public.

Down the road, what's to prevent MoviePass from dictating pricing to theaters? If 40% if your traffic is MP customers then MP has a ton of leverage. Maybe MP starts buying tickets in advance, in bulk, because they can quantify their audience better.

Maybe this sort of model is possible in other kinds of markets too.
 
The more data you have out there, the more convincing an identity thief can be, and the more under the radar they can be before you realize that anything is wrong. Correlating seemingly disparate data is a key ingredient to effective identity theft.

As I mentioned in another reply, at some point MoviePass will come to terms with the fact that the big theater chains are not going to buy their data, so they'll have to sell it to someone. What if that someone is, say, the government? They don't have anything to sell you but they'd sure value personal data on the citizenry. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination, but aside from not wanting my personal info and location history to be available to corporations, I especially don't want that info to be easily available to any government agency that wants it.

And spare me your 'If you have nothing to hide ...' arguments. Example. You live in California or Colorado and smoke a bit of weed. The feds decide to exercise their muscle and bust casual weed smokers under federal laws that (they think, or want to test) conflict with state laws. Do you want the government to know you've visited the dispensary down the street every Tuesday at 2 pm for the last two months?

This type of data collection and use isn't necessarily about what's happening here and now, but the climate of things in the future. There are states in the US that are very much (for example) anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-whatever, and allowing rampant personal data collection, especially location and spending habits, give whatever oppressors there might be fuel for whatever lame-brained schemes they come up with.

It's not limited to governments, either. You could, say, be turned down for a job before you even interview with a place because of where you live, where you shop, what your hobbies are, etc., stuff that's nobody's business.

Makes sense, but still very speculative. Out of the millions of data points between millions of users, seems like a very long shot that anything negative will happen. I'm still not worried about it. Happily, nothing to hide here. :)
 
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