MoviePass App Tracks Your Location Before and After Movies [Updated With Statement]

[kugino]

got the costco special for $90/year. have watched a dozen movies in 2 months...i don't expect moviepass to last much longer, but i knew they'd be collecting data about me. if/when we find out they've been doing illegal things to get personal info, i'll be upset. but for now, i think it's ok.

as for theaters, moviepass indeed helps you b/c i normally don't buy popcorn/drinks when i pay full price for a movie...now i buy popcorn/drinks all the time.

 

[newyorksole]

Not worried at all about this. Moving on...

 

[usarioclave]

The only question I have about MoviePass is how to they prevent fraud.

They authorize an amount on the card, but what's to stop you from, say, buying a candy bar instead of your ticket? That's assuming that the candy bar costs less than your ticket, which may or may not be true depending on the theatre. I mean, you're not going to make money selling candy bars when you get one a day.

How do they prevent you from getting a cash refund at the theatre? You could slowly extract money from MP by buying and refunding tickets.

 

[zorinlynx]

I remember when a homepage first became a thing. We were warned to not put any personally identifiable information there so that we wouldn't have our kids kidnapped.

Now people will share anything just to save a few $.

I blame Facebook. They made it "hip and cool" to use your real name and info on the Internet. Then eventually it was required. And then other sites started requiring it too. Eventually after many years of this the culture has switched from "Don't put your real information on the internet!" to "You're using an alias on the Internet? What's wrong with you? What do you have to hide?"

People have become far too trusting and thus companies are taking advantage. This is not going to stop unless people, en-masse, put their feet down and say "STOP" and that's not likely to happen ever.

 

[robbysibrahim]

Happy to hear they have a revenue model through data mining. Or else, this company can't do what they're doing forever. Plus if they do to dining out what they're attempting to do to moving-going I'm down. But yeah, you can easily set iOS to only use loc while in app unfortunately for them.

 

[zorinlynx]

The only question I have about MoviePass is how to they prevent fraud.

They authorize an amount on the card, but what's to stop you from, say, buying a candy bar instead of your ticket? That's assuming that the candy bar costs less than your ticket, which may or may not be true depending on the theatre. I mean, you're not going to make money selling candy bars when you get one a day.

How do they prevent you from getting a cash refund at the theatre? You could slowly extract money from MP by buying and refunding tickets.

You might be able to get away with this once, but when the system sees that the wrong amount was charged they'll disable your account.

Good luck buying something at the theater that costs exactly the same as a ticket after tax.

 

[usarioclave]

You might be able to get away with this once, but when the system sees that the wrong amount was charged they'll disable your account.

Good luck buying something at the theater that costs exactly the same as a ticket after tax.

In general the debit system authorizes an amount, but you can spend less than the amount. But yeah, they'll catch that eventually. But, if you get a refund for your ticket do they have to put it back on the card? It's been decades since I got a ticket refund, so I'm not sure how those work anymore.

 

[TheColtr]

Allow location when using the app, and turn off background app refresh. Done.

I use movie pass and I love how cheap it is. I’ll let them see what theater I go to. Heck regal tracks whenever I use my regal card so I’m getting tracked at the theater anyways. It’s not like they can track me all over the place. iOS makes that pretty simple.

 

[Regbial]

It's almost like all this constant tracking doesn't wear down your battery life to hell.... oh wait... IT DOES!!! Why does everyone seem to ignore this??

 

[Pakaku]

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. This is a no brainer for me. They can collect all the data they want. I mean everyone else is doing it....

If "everyone else is doing it", that just means "everyone else" should stop doing that...

 

[usarioclave]

If "everyone else is doing it", that just means "everyone else" should stop doing that...

if it's up-front there's no issue.

 

[Tiger8]

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. This is a no brainer for me. They can collect all the data they want. I mean everyone else is doing it....

I got the Costco deal, and co-sign! Absolutely love it. It works at even smaller theaters in the city, I watch movies at Angelica and Quad (plus A ton of big chains)

So they probably know of the closest theater next to me, the fact that I love movies of all genres (blockbusters, horror, comedy, sci fi, indie, foreign, documentary). I'm happy to share this info for free

 

[zorinlynx]

In general the debit system authorizes an amount, but you can spend less than the amount. But yeah, they'll catch that eventually. But, if you get a refund for your ticket do they have to put it back on the card? It's been decades since I got a ticket refund, so I'm not sure how those work anymore.

Refunds must either be store credit or go back to the same card the purchase was made on. That's the usual case in merchant agreements.

It would be a hell of a lot of effort to probably not even get back what you paid for the MoviePass in the first place.

 

[aneftp]

U don’t even have to buy a movie ticket. Just click on the movie u want to watch. And it loads the actual price of movie ticket into the card. If there is subway next door or whatever. U can buy urself a sandwich and not attend the movie.

 

[Winter Charm]

Lol... not my data. Get bent, moviepass.

 

[tooloud10]

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.

TIL that I watch movies differently than 'most people' because my process is to drive to the theater, buy a ticket, and watch the movie. I honestly don't see how the process is a pain, especially considering the price.
[doublepost=1520305245][/doublepost]

It's almost like all this constant tracking doesn't wear down your battery life to hell.... oh wait... IT DOES!!! Why does everyone seem to ignore this??

A better question is why so many are ignoring that there's a super simple solution to the 'constant tracking' while keeping your MP deal of unlimited movies for ten bucks a month. The magic solution words are "While using the app"...

Moviepass isn't tracking me.

 

[THE JUICEMAN]

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.

What I mean is that I am getting what I paid for ($83) once I see 7 movies in a year assuming tickets cost on average around $12. Anything over 7 is a bonus because I am essentially seeing those movies for free.

 

[DotCom2]

U don’t even have to buy a movie ticket. Just click on the movie u want to watch. And it loads the actual price of movie ticket into the card. If there is subway next door or whatever. U can buy urself a sandwich and not attend the movie.

You would only be able to possibly do that ONCE before your account gets cancelled. They know!

 

[usarioclave]

Refunds must either be store credit or go back to the same card the purchase was made on. That's the usual case in merchant agreements.

It would be a hell of a lot of effort to probably not even get back what you paid for the MoviePass in the first place.

True, but occasionally retailers will give cash refunds back. It really depends on the cashier and store. I've gotten cash from Target, for example, even for Redcard purchases. Although it sounds ridiculous, people online have done substantially more work for less. I suppose if you had a theatre right next to your workplace you could get a free hotdog every day.

 

[riverfreak]

Location-awareness is rarely, if ever, sufficiently useful to warrant enabling.

This is just a case in point. A third party app that provides you with theater locations. No thanks. Maps/Google Maps is about the only app that I allow to use my location and then only when I am using the app.

 

[doctor-don]

I just don't understand why the CEO would say that so proudly...

And the vast majority of Android/iOS users don't adjust app-specific location services - most people just click "OK" on any dialog that pops up when they open the app without reading it.

"Most"? That's your personal opinion. I won't do that and have some apps disabled because of such behavior.
Other apps continue tracking (and using my battery) and have to be Force Stopped.

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 credit/debit card. So simple it's a joke (kinda like your analogy which makes about zero sense!).

Hmmm … Have you heard from the mods for your personal attack?

So simple: cancel the app, stop charging the credit card. No, they didn't cancel. It makes it necessary to dispute the charge with the credit card company. That is shoddy business.

 

[WilliamG]

"Most"? That's your personal opinion. I won't do that and have some apps disabled because of such behavior.
Other apps continue tracking (and using my battery) and have to be Force Stopped.



Hmmm … Have you heard from the mods for your personal attack?

So simple: cancel the app, stop charging the credit card. No, they didn't cancel. It makes it necessary to dispute the charge with the credit card company. That is shoddy business.

Why would I hear from the mods about attacking an analogy for being ridiculous? How is that a PERSONAL attack?

 

[charlituna]

It shouldn't be a surprise...it was obvious their business model was selling your personal data.

well it was obvious something else had to be going on. most folks assumed it was data about the movies seen and what theaters. but no this isn't all that shocking. it will be curious to see what happens when folks figure out exactly how much data is being lifted and sold.

 

[usarioclave]

This is just a case in point. A third party app that provides you with theater locations. No thanks. Maps/Google Maps is about the only app that I allow to use my location and then only when I am using the app.

Actually, they provide you with theatre locations that you can use with MoviePass. You choose a theatre and a movie, and then it sends the amount of your ticket to a linked debit card that you then use to pay.

So it's not location-aware for no reason, it's location aware so it can find a MoviePass vetted theatre near you.

 

[seanrt]

I think it's fair. What they charge is pretty much a steal.

What happened to the internet mantra if it’s free, you are the product. Why would I want to pay a subscription fee to allow them to profit off my use.
[doublepost=1520317046][/doublepost]

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!

Say the company is hacked. If you pick up your kids after a movie, go for a psychiatric visit that people didn’t know you were seeing. The hackers or even shady people that legitimately buy the data can use the data nefariously. Even if you don’t do something illegal, why would you want strangers to have this information and still have them charge you while they rake in the $$?