Bandersnatch and our privacy2 min read

The latest episode of Black Mirror, ‘Bandersnatch’ has been discussed for days everywhere. The film produced by Netflix and released as a special episode of the series continues to cause controversy.

Beyond the plot, the scope of innovation has been to give the ability to the viewer to choose what the protagonist’s next actions will be.

Based on those choices it’s possible to create a different ending, however, restarting or replaying the episode again, all the choices made before are cleared, it’s like starting a new game.

It would’ve been a simple procedure to introduce a small text file that would have registered all the choices made by each viewer at the various crossroads.

Like so, the production decided to give up on what would have probably been a gold mine of data about viewers’ preferences. However, it would have also violated our privacy.

The user choices can be a valuable source of information. In note of this, I ask what the future is for privacy while watching TV?

From this point of view, there is one more element to consider, as evidenced by Quartz Daily Brief: How is the data on the choices made by the viewer treated? Could it be a new way to watch us and invade our privacy under the innocent cloak of a form of innovative entertainment?

As it is known today, big data analysis is capable of saying a lot about a person just by looking at their daily digital habits.

Netflix responded to Quartz that the data of the choices made by viewers during the Bandersnatch vision are treated without exceeding the bounds of their privacy policy.

These choices may be innocent, like the brand of cereal to eat in the morning, or the decision of which vinyl to buy. The good news is that the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires each company to explain what data will be used and for what purposes.

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash