So does Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and other services track what you watch? Yes, they track that and likely more. How do we know? Netflix themselves has talked about doing this for some time. Recently they even called out 53 users who watched A Christmas Prince every day for 18 days straight.
To the 53 people who’ve watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?
— Netflix US (@netflix) December 11, 2017
One of the easiest ways to see how services track what you watch is to look at their menus. When you see options like shows you may like or continue watching that is one example of how they track what you watch and use it to recommend something to watch the next time you open the app.
Netflix and others use this information to also help them decide what shows to make and what shows to renew.
Many may ask how do we block this, and the truth is you may not want to. If you really love a show letting the creators know you watch it makes it far more likely they will renew the show if they know people watch it.
Some services, such as Sling TV, allow you to turn off Nielsen tracking in the settings. Though don’t blame me if your favorite show gets canceled because they don’t know someone was watching it.
So the truth is, yes, everyone tracks what you do online. From app stores tracking what apps you download to recommend new apps to you to streaming services. While this may seem like an invasion of privacy, this information is used to help improve services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon by offering content more people watch.
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