Related to this, I wish more of Hulu's financials were made public. They have essentially concentrated on growing their ad-supported subscriptions by cutting the consumer price and doing subscription bundle deals with others like Spotify. Sometimes you could get Hulu for $1 per month (when it costs about ~$12 per month for an ad-free subscription).
Is it due to ad supported subscriptions being worth more to Hulu or is it just a subscription count growth strategy?
Hulu's privacy policy[1] is one of the whackiest I've ever seen. Most policies limit sharing of user information to affiliates, service providers, business partners (read: advertisers) and when legally required. Hulu makes no such promises:
> We may share information collected from or about you with third parties as explained further below, including business partners, social networking services, service providers, advertisers, and other companies that are not affiliated with Hulu.
Basically anyone.
But it's probably not that big of a deal if advertisers and "other companies not affiliated with Hulu" can see that you watch Always Sunny with alarming frequency, right? Well that's not the only data they're collecting. Hulu's tracking is just as invasive as Google and Facebook:
> This information may relate to your use of the Hulu Services, websites you visited, advertisements you viewed, and your other activities online. Advertising that is based on information collected from or about you across websites, applications and other platforms over time is known as interest-based or online behavioral advertising.
It's not tracking though, Hulu uses the far less sinister name of "Behaviorial Advertising" in their policy. And the policy repeatedly justifies their practices by pointing to the "Self Regulatory Principals for Online Behavioral Advertising"[2] which are not particularly principled principals. Unsurprising when you consider they were created by the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
Hulu might share information about everything you do online but at least your personal data will be cloaked in the anonymity of "aggregate" data, right? Nope.
> We may share the information collected from or about you in encrypted, aggregated, or de-identified forms
That's a tres commas club sentence. Meaning they'll share your information in the aggregate OR de-identified OR they'll encrypt it. So they might send all of your information and browsing habits to the highest bidder but at least they'll do you the solid of encrypting it first.
And notice they use the term "de-identified" instead of the standard "personally identifiable." That's no mistake. According to the policy, "de-identified" means:
> that the information does not identify you personally
As in, it doesn't have your full name or phone number. Contrast that with the typical definition of PI[3]:
> any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity
It's no wonder they aren't operating in Europe.
TL/DR: Hulu's privacy practices are significantly more abhorrent than FAANG's.
Is it due to ad supported subscriptions being worth more to Hulu or is it just a subscription count growth strategy?