Netflix has been compared to Big Brother after posting a ‘creepy’ tweet in which it shared very detailed information about customers’ viewing habits – while using it to rather cruelly poke fun at people for watching a Christmas movie.
However, a Reddit user has cast a new light on the streaming site’s monitoring tactics, by revealing how positively they were impacted when someone from Netflix sent them an email asking if they were feeling ‘okay’ after they binge-watched The Office for a whole week.
The anonymous Redditor also shared that they were suffering from depression at the time and said that the kind-hearted message actually made them feel better.
Heartfelt: An anonymous Reddit user has revealed that someone from Netflix emailed them to make sure they were okay after they watched The Office solidly for a week
Meaningful: The user revealed that during this time they had been suffering from depression and that the email from Netflix helped them to realize that someone really cared
‘One summer I was going through an episode of depression and I wasn’t working as I was on break from college and waiting until I moved back to my college town to start again,’ they wrote.
‘I ended up doing nothing but watching Netflix, and after I finished the office in something like 5 – 10 days, I don’t quite remember, I received an email from Netflix asking if I was okay.’
Explaining that the streaming service had noticed their account was ‘running non-stop for over a week’, King_Salamander explained why they got in touch.
‘Honestly made me feel better just knowing that someone, even a stranger working at a customer support agency, cared about my mental health,’ the added.
After publishing its year-end report, in which it celebrated its most successful day as a result of the popularity of Stranger Things, the streaming service has been posting certain pieces of very specific information on its social media account, with one tweet in particular sparking a flurry of concerned, and angry, replies.
‘To the 53 people who’ve watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?’ the tweet read, referring to Netflix’s original festive movie which was released on the site just a few weeks ago.
A big hit: Earlier this week, Netflix revealed that 53 of its subscribers have watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days
On blast: The particular stat about the popular Christmas film prompted Netflix to call out the users on Twitter – a moved which was slammed by some as ‘creepy’ and ‘weird’
Outrage: People were quick to respond to the tweet, accusing Netflix of ‘creepy’ tactics, and blasting the site for using data to ‘laugh’ at its customers
Scary tactics: One person even compared Netflix to ‘Big Brother’
Hot take: Journalist Hugo Rifkind called the Netflix tweet ‘f*****g creepy’
And while some were quick to see the attempted humor within the post, happily replying with their own embarrassing viewing habits, others blasted the much ‘creepier’ aspect, calling out the fact that the site is not only monitoring its viewers incredibly closely, but that it is also using this data to troll its customers.
‘Hot Take: Netflix tweeting this is f*****g creepy,’ journalist Hugo Rifkind shared.
Christian Christiensen then chimed in: ‘Good to know @netflix staff are sitting around their offices looking at private user data, laughing about it, then sending out a tweet to millions.
‘Creepy and a complete violation.’
‘So unknown creepy Netflix staff have access to your viewing data, use it to creep on you, laugh at you, maybe publicly,’ Ben Goldacre shared on his Twitter account.
‘I guess it’s like video store staff, except a massive database means it’s easier for creepy Netflix staff to find and creep on individual people they know.’
‘I liked this tweet because it’s good to be reminded that huge unaccountable companies use our personal data to dunk on us both literally and figuratively,’ wrote another Twitter user.
Seeing the light side? One person also made the Big Brother reference, but added some humor in the form of a winking face
A question: Some people decided to engage in witty conversations with the site, however
The big one: Stranger Things gave the service its biggest streaming day of the year after coming out with a second season on October 29
An interesting choice: One UK-based viewer was found to have Bee Movie a total of 357 times
There were some users, however, who seemed happy to engage with the streaming site’s tweet, snapping back with their own witty replies, and even joining the Netflix account in a war of words in some cases.
‘Why are you calling people out like that Netflix?’ asked one user, to which the account responded: ‘I just want to make sure you’re okay.’
The user quickly retorted: ‘You’re not my mom.’
Another chimed in: ‘Does Netflix actually pay attention to how often I watch or re-watch things? Because if so, I’m sorry.’
But the A Christmas Prince fans weren’t the only ones called out by the year-end review, such as the single Netflix user in the UK who has watched Bee Movie a total of 357 times.
One serious Johnny Depp fan watched Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl every single day this year, while another Canadian user watched the third Lord of the Rings movie 361 times.
Other data released by the streaming service revealed that Greenleaf, a series about a family and their sprawling megachurch in Memphis, was the most ‘devoured’ show in 2017 – meaning the program had been watched for more than two hours per day.
The Crown was named the most savored show, and Narcos was named the show customers were more likely to ‘cheat’ and watch ahead of their partner.