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Data Ownership & Portability
Ideas
1. Data Portability (backup, import / export, re-use)
2. Profile Management (merge or duplicate data)
3. Data Ownership
Netflix needs to implement features to help preserve its customers data and give the customer the ability to move it around as they see fit. This was recently highlighted during the "profile feature eliminated" fiasco.
Data Backup, Import & Export
Currently users cannot backup or export their data (ratings, queue) User data is currently locked inside of Netflix (and fractured between profiles). The data belongs to the customers and customers are generously granting Netflix access to their data. But Netflix treats the data like its their property not the property of their customers.
Since the data is truly the property of the customer, Netflix should enable the customer to backup that data to an open file format (TXT, XML). The ability to export data in a de facto standard format, like the hReview Microformat would enable users to export their data out of Netflix and easily use the data elsewhere (on their blog as HTML or with other services that support hReview).
Profile Management
In the case of the profile fiasco, profile management tools that enable customers to merge or transfer data between profiles would have empowered users to preserve their data. Instead Netflix essentially announced they would delete the customers data.
The import / export feature described above would have allowed customers to not only backup their data, but to also import it into a different account or profile. If Netflix had provided either of these methods, merging the profiles of family members in one account would have made the elimination of the profile feature less of a headache (though not solving the customer service problem).
Data Ownership
The core of this issue is ownership. Customers — users — own their data. Netflix needs to respect that fact. Customers need to demand Netflix enable them to preserve their data, moving it in and out of the Netflix service as they see fit in an open, standardized format that helps customers use their data where eve, when ever and with what service they like.
1. Data Portability (backup, import / export, re-use)
2. Profile Management (merge or duplicate data)
3. Data Ownership
Netflix needs to implement features to help preserve its customers data and give the customer the ability to move it around as they see fit. This was recently highlighted during the "profile feature eliminated" fiasco.
Data Backup, Import & Export
Currently users cannot backup or export their data (ratings, queue) User data is currently locked inside of Netflix (and fractured between profiles). The data belongs to the customers and customers are generously granting Netflix access to their data. But Netflix treats the data like its their property not the property of their customers.
Since the data is truly the property of the customer, Netflix should enable the customer to backup that data to an open file format (TXT, XML). The ability to export data in a de facto standard format, like the hReview Microformat would enable users to export their data out of Netflix and easily use the data elsewhere (on their blog as HTML or with other services that support hReview).
Profile Management
In the case of the profile fiasco, profile management tools that enable customers to merge or transfer data between profiles would have empowered users to preserve their data. Instead Netflix essentially announced they would delete the customers data.
The import / export feature described above would have allowed customers to not only backup their data, but to also import it into a different account or profile. If Netflix had provided either of these methods, merging the profiles of family members in one account would have made the elimination of the profile feature less of a headache (though not solving the customer service problem).
Data Ownership
The core of this issue is ownership. Customers — users — own their data. Netflix needs to respect that fact. Customers need to demand Netflix enable them to preserve their data, moving it in and out of the Netflix service as they see fit in an open, standardized format that helps customers use their data where eve, when ever and with what service they like.
I’m confident Netflix should implement my idea.
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Inappropriate?So true! I want my movie review data and I want to export it to excel or the web or something.
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?I really don't care. I would not write a review or rate a movie were it not for Netflix. What are the Netflix TOS? Is it really up to Netflix to make sure you can access your data when and where you want it? If you want your data I assume Cut and Paste works just fine then you can Cut and Paste it anywhere you like. I personally don't need to pay for your desire to have all of this supposed personal data management, in increased membership fees. If your movie reviews are that important to you is it not your responsibility to manage them? Last time I checked Netflix rented DVDs. If you want portable, manageable and everywhere access data do it yourself. I am indifferent to the way Netflix treats my data. I am frustrated that this kind of thinking exists. Were it not for Netflix would your data be used by anyone? Without your data I am sure Netflix would still be around. If your data is so valuable start your own website or blog and generate your own traffic. Don't expect Netflix to manage your data. Heck go a write a book!!!! Most of all don't expect to get a free ride out of Netflix.
I’m indifferent
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Inappropriate?Snowflake,
We created a site to address those three items you've mentioned. It's called http://SaveMyRatings.com and it allows you to export and import your movie (and book) ratings from multiple sites (Netflix, IMDB, Amazon...etc.) You can also download a CSV of your ratings. We're working on other formats.
You can also merge ratings from multiple sites by exporting them all into SaveMyRatings.com and the result should be only the unique ratings.
Seeing as you're clearly someone who's thought about this a lot, I'd appreciate your feedback.
Contact info on the site.
Thanks.
Alan -
Inappropriate?I am also indifferent. Why do I need to extract the movie ratings I put into Netflix? I can't see any practical purpose for this. As Gregory J said, the only reason that this "data" exists is because of Netflix. There's nowhere else I would be able to import these ratings to anyway, so why do I need to export or "save" them in the first place?
As for reviews, why not just save your review yourself? If you are writing a review that is just so amazing that you must cherish it forever, I would imagine you used a word processing program when typing it up. In that case, just hit save in Word before you copy-and-paste the review into the Netflix website. If your review didn't merit being written in something like Word or OpenOffice, then it probably wasn't important enough to bother saving anyway.
I’m not sure why this matters in the case of Netflix
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This is one of the best points
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Thanks for the comment Nick.
What might you do with the ratings data you export?
Companies are in a continuous state of change. Leadership and staff come and go and policies change. In six months if Netflix chooses to increase their price or their customer service becomes unbearable, I might want to take my business elsewhere, say Blockbuster. If both Netflix and Blockbuster use an open data format I can export too, if I ever become unhappy with the service I can move my data to another service. When you have 1,000-plus ratings and recommendations are based on past rental history and ratings, being able to reuse that data is a huge time saver.
Or how about this. Netflix makes a bad choice in server technology, hacker comes along or a natural disaster wipes out there data center. If I have a backup of my ratings data, when the service comes back online, I won't be starting from square one.
Or what if my Netflix has secured my data and there service continues to be satisfactory. Why then? What if I find another service online, like Facebook or iLike or Rotten Tomatoes where I want to share my movie ratings with friends. Being able to export my Netflix ratings and import it into another service becomes useful.
I recognize not every user has a large number of ratings nor may they ever decide to use another online service that works with ratings data. But that doesn't mean that its not a reasonable request. If Netflix decides not enough user interest exists for that feature, so be it. But I'll still request it because I would find it valuable and I hope that perhaps you understand why even if you disagree.
Again, thanks for the comment. -
Inappropriate?Realistically, how would it work? I'm thinking of a database here -- what would be the primary key? What kind of "universal" format could exist? Does each movie have some sort of GUID assigned to it? If so, who will assign them and who will manage the list of GUIDs? If not, then there is no way to easily import the data from one service/company into another service/company. Even if I had some sort of file (CSV, XML, etc.) with the name of every movie and the rating I assigned to it, it would take some pretty amazing algorithms to import that data properly. Think of movies that share the same name, for instance, or international titles that are listed in their native language by one company by in English by another.
I think the reason why it hasn't been done is because there's no good way to make a "universal" format. IOW, even if everyone did allow you to export the information, it would be very hard for another company such as Blockbuster or Facebook or whatever to parse your exported data. Importing into Netflix or IMDB would require the import wizard to match each item with the existing movie in the system (e.g., IMDB would have to match titles in your rating file to the IMDB ID they assign to each movie). It would take significant work to match whatever "universal" data format to each company's existing database. It's not as simple as "let users export their data".
Go to all this work to facilitate customers leaving/switching to the competition? I can see why it hasn't been implemented ;-)
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?Nick,
We have implemented a system to do just what you have suggested. We allow users to copy (“export”) their rating from a client site like Netflix to SaveMyRatings.com, and then copy (“import”) their ratings into other sites like Amazon.
I would strongly agree with the reasons stated for data portability. It ultimately boils down to consumer choice, personalization and efficiency. These are the same reasons people want to export their contact lists from webmail services like Hotmail. On our main site, we laid out the reasons we support data portability and I’d be glad to elaborate.
You raise some very real difficulties associated with data portability, especially where a universal identifier is no present. We developed a solution to map titles from one site to another; thereby trying to automate as much of that transfer as possible. If the user feels we got the mapping wrong, we give them the option to select a different mapping.
We offer the option to download your ratings in CSV, but our most popular feature is copying your ratings into other sites. For example, a lot of our users have copied their Netflix ratings into Amazon; which will greatly improve the Amazon recommendations.
Clearly, if you only have a couple ratings it’s not worth the time. But a lot of our users have invested significant time and energy into creating their ratings with the hope that it will personalize and improve these web services. We’re trying to help them get the most out of their work.
I’d be interested to hear your feedback on our implementation. We currently support eight different movie websites (see our “Support Sites” link). Feel free to email me $MyName@SaveMyRatings.com
Regards,
Alan -
Inappropriate?This is a great idea. I think even to be able to export reviews and star ratings to an APML file would be amazing. Would love to take all my ratings data for other movie/entertainment related sites.
I’m optimistic
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Inappropriate?Two options for getting this data:
Feedfliks lists it all, once you connect with them for free.
This site grabs all your ratings in one swoop, and allows you to leave them as a text file, or make a spreadsheet with them:
Netflix Ratings Grabber
Hope those help, son.
