[1] http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/10/technology/social/netflix-vp...
But the stated purpose was more benign: they couldn't add "share" buttons that would let you one-click-post "I'm watching House of Cards on Netflix" because they were supposed to have written consent to release that information.
I am OK with Netflix getting permission to build useful features. And I am absolutely OK with Netflix using my anonymized viewing data to, for example, build better content predictors to make my experience with their service better.
The law protected judges with sketchy video rentals from nosy journalists. It has almost nothing to do with protecting Netflix viewers from ISP and government surveillance. This measure deals with the latter.
A potential downside is that my predictions are less effective because I don't get to find that because you and I both liked Monk and Pink Panther, I would probably also like Psych, or another show you liked.
If this required mailing in a letter to Netflix so they could use your data, it would never work.
I would be fine with it being opt-out, or even opt-in. I would be curious what the response would be if you had to opt in to get useful recommendations.
Can you add a item to the ToS that says: Vendor is allowed to kill customer at any time during contract term?
Maybe that is a bad example, since assisted suicide is basically that.