MoviePass Screws-the-Pooch →
Well - dammit - I was wrong... Early last week I made the error in a post on Monday 2018/03/05, in which I managed to scribble this diatribe: To Wit, "Easily the most egregiously moronic idea I've heard this month (and it's only 5 days in(!)" ...
Well, that declaration has been overshadowed in our highly-read Observed-Stupidity-In-Security-And-Privacy-News-Department by a bottom-of-the-sea-deeply-ignorant statement uttered by MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe regarding his extraordinary pleasure at tracking users within the company's MoviePass iPhone and Android apps (see below).
'The update comes after CEO Mitch Lowe made comments at the Entertainment Finance Forum in Los Angeles last week, claiming that the company was tracking users’ locations. “We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards,” commented Lowe, according to a report from Media Play News. - via Chaim Gartenberg, writing at The Verge
Bravado? Misplaced Confidence? Hairplugs too-tight? Too Much Campari before dinner? I think not, just simple, unmitigated and blatant stupidity...
Perhaps a leadership change is in order, eh MoviePass? At least, the company did manage to (allegedly) remove the tracking-bits from the product and resissue the apps in the apropos app stores. Of course, there is always bad news with this type of mea culpa: In a statement made to Engadget, the company claimed they are still planning to use location data marketing to enhance their revenue stream. Ah, yes, the old Give It To 'Em, Then Take It Away gambit. Oh Joy!