Netflix’s US customers get Facebook-sharing tool
By The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, March 14, 2013, 12:01 a.m.
Updated: Thursday, March 14, 2013
Netflix's US customers get Facebook-sharing tool
A long-awaited coming attraction has finally arrived for Netflix's U.S. subscribers. They will now be able to automatically see what their Facebook friends have been watching on the Internet video service, as long as they are willing to open a peephole into their viewing habits, too. The sharing tool announced Wednesday is rolling out 18 months after Netflix Inc. introduced the feature to its international subscribers. The expansion exposes the feature to a much wider audience because Netflix has 27 million Internet video subscribers in the U.S. versus 6 million customers in more than 50 other countries and territories. Netflix isn't creating an outlet for the 8.2 million subscribers to its steadily shrinking DVD-by-mail rental service to share what they're checking out on discs. Netflix withheld the sharing tool in the U.S.to avoid breaking a 1988 law that banned the disclosure of video rental records without a customer's written consent. After several years of lobbying, the Lost Gatos, Calif., company persuaded Congress to revise the law so that subscribers could choose to activate a video-sharing feature.
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