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0 pointsChuckMcM5y ago0 comments

From last year: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-survei... but my source was a long time Roku employee who eventually quit after the monetization started getting "out of hand" (his words, not mine).

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4 comments · 1 top-level

AznHisoka5y ago· 3 in thread

Are they actually selling the data directly to 3rd parties? Or just using it for targeted advertising? The latter is obviously occurring but not sure about the first.

ChuckMcMOP5y ago

My understanding (and to be clear, this is hearsay, I did not seek to independently verify it) is that they will sell viewing information to a channel provider. (so Amazon could find out how often you opened up Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video, or you started on Amazon, closed it, and then opened up Netflix, etc).

strawberrypuree5y ago

What’s the difference in terms of impact to the users? Even if they are not selling “AznHisoka watched x minutes or y show on this date,” they are using it to influence your behavior through ads.

AznHisoka5y ago

I'm not asking from an user perspective, just curious from a business perspective. The data, if sold, could be useful from a content creation perspective. IE. if you know what shows X usually watches, it could help you with creating new shows.

Obviously, it's useful for advertising as well. But if they're not selling the data directly, it doesn't help with the content creation use case.

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