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Comment by mortenjorck | Hacker News Reader

At long last, over three years after its ignominious removal, Netflix Friends makes its return.

I don't think I really want to use this, though. I'm cautious about what automatic data I allow into Facebook (I'm sure they're already inferring enough from my friends), and while ironically I wouldn't really care if my viewing habits were automatically shared with my friends, I don't really want that data accumulating in Facebook's graph portrait of me.

[edit]

I get that sharing with your friends doesn't happen unless you opt in, but the way it's described, it's not clear if that default state is "all activity is sent to Facebook but not posted to your timeline" or "no activity is sent to Facebook at all."

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Exactly. I would prefer Netflix's initial friend system with an option to integrate with FB. I find there are very few of my friends whom I would be interested in their taste, and vice versa. A very small percentage of my friends would want to watch Blade Runner and 400 blows on repeat, and I doubt that any of them would be interested that that is what I choose to watch.

There are different social spheres, and facebook is a public sphere now.

What is stopping Netflix from creating their own social network? Where you could follow people whose movies taste you like?

So I for one will not connect, and hope that they create a real customizable social experience that is unique to Netflix. Nothing is worse than frictionless sharing, that's not a social experience that I think has a sustainable future.

Good point, I want to see what my Netflix friends are watching for ideas on what to watch, and I want to share selected things I liked. But I don't necessarily want Netflix to automatically tell the world that I just watched "Giant Zombie Time-Traveling Alien Nazi Wasps" because I was bored and there was nothing else good around.

FTFA:

> By default, sharing will only happen on Netflix.

The post says that that Facebook Sharing is opt-in:

  By default, sharing will only happen on Netflix.

And the rest seems easily disabled as well:

  You are in control of what gets shared. You can choose not 
  to share a specific title by clicking the “Don't Share 
  This” button in the player. You can also visit your 
  “Social Settings” in “Your Account” on Netflix.com to turn 
  on additional sharing to Facebook or stop sharing 
  altogether.

My main Netflix player is a Blu-Ray player from 2009. I don't think Samsung is going to push an update to add the Don't Share This button. I'm just not going to connect my accounts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/netflix-social-shar...

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