Netflix Responds to Bombshell Report That Company Gained Access to Private Facebook User Data

A bombshell New York Times report emerged that said that Netflix, among other tech giants, received “far more intrusive access to your personal data than it ever disclosed” via Facebook.

According to the report, “Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.”

It continued, “Facebook also allowed Spotify, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada to read, write and delete users’ private messages, and to see all participants on a thread — privileges that appeared to go beyond what the companies needed to integrate Facebook into their systems, the records show.”

Netflix responded to the allegations in a tweet, saying, “Netflix never asked for, or accessed, anyone’s private messages. We’re not the type to slide into your DMs.”

Netflix elaborated further to Vulture, saying, “Over the years we have tried various ways to make Netflix more social. One example of this was a feature we launched in 2014 that enabled members to recommend TV shows and movies to their Facebook friends via Messenger or Netflix. It was never that popular so we shut the feature down in 2015. At no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook, or ask for the ability to do so.”