I know Netflix is not a privacy respecting service but I think there’s no privacy focused or foss alternative to it and I don’t think there will ever be one. I know there are services such as jellyfin but that’s not what I want. I don’t want to go around the internet looking for pirated movies to download and use.
So how do I use netflix privately?
Personally I don’t consider Netflix to be a big privacy risk. Or more accurately, I don’t consider my interactions with Netflix to be sensitive/confidential enough to worry about privacy. I access it from a web browser, so any privacy invasion by Netflix should be pretty contained to just my interactions with Netflix (what I watch/when/how long/etc) + my IP address(es). I don’t personally consider this sensitive info.
Are there specific things you’d like to keep private from Netflix that you haven’t been able to? Or is this more of a general question?
I don’t think there’s any particular information that I want to hide. I just want some decent privacy, so Netflix is able to get as little information about me as possible.
So if I use it in browser (ff with ublock or brave) and use a VPN, it would be private?
Afaik, that is about the best you can do (apart from minimizing the amount of true info you share with Netflix during signup/payment). Streaming services tend to block VPNs so you may or may not be able to reliably use Netflix with a VPN.
I can’t really think of too many ways in which my interactions with Netflix (through a browser with tracker/ad blocking) would negatively impact my privacy in ways that matter to me. Theoretically, I’m sure broad inferences about my personality type / gender / age / etc could be made based on enough of my browsing data (particularly if cross referenced with other data sources), but that is far down the list of things I worry about.
If you live in the EU or California, you can legally request the personal information Netflix has associated with you. The process can be a bit slow or tedious. But it might give you a better idea how exposed you are or are not.
Yeah, other than using brave or ff with ublock, I would just use a privacy.com card if you’re in america and alias the email through simplelogin. Oh and ProtonVPN seems to be the standard recommendation for people who like streaming stuff since they seem to target being compatible and working with it.
Different name on account, burner email, pay with giftcard, VPN?
I heard they ban people who use VPNs, so you might need to rent a privacy focused VPS and set up your own VPN.
A lot of work. If you have an ad-blocker streaming movies without an account is better.
The suggestion would indeed be “keep using Netflix on a browser” but the problem is that when you watch in an unsupported OS like linux, the quality is capped at 480p.
My proposal is that you can continually pay for Netflix while downloading their shows on “The Bay”.
At that point, paying for Netflix is more of an ethical issue. They wont be able to allocate the money you’ve paid with your time spent watching. Not my problem really.
My use case is that I use my SO’s Netflix account to trial and get a feel for the show if I like it. When I get a show that I like, I source the show that I want down by The Bay.
Maybe the same should also apply for music streaming?
My long term plan is to buy my own BluRay collection and rip it to my own Jellyfin account.