Andre Yoskowitz
13 Mar 2010 17:01
Netflix’s second $1 million contest, which offered to give the winner the money for creating the best way to improve the company's movie recommendation system, has been canceled this week, with Netflix citing privacy concerns.
University of Texas researchers found that the "anonymous" data released by Netflix for the contest, including recommendations and choices from hundreds of thousands of users could be used to identify the users, by name.
The researchers brought the news to the FTC, and a class action lawsuit as well, leading Netflix to cancel the second contest. They have also settled the lawsuit.
Says Neil Hunt, Netflix’s chief product officer: "The resolution of both matters involves certain parameters on how we use Netflix data in any future research programs."