A study by Common Sense Media reveals that most streaming services across the board share poor privacy practices, and can even prove to be cybersecurity risks.
Streaming services are everywhere, with almost every large media-based corporation doing their best to set up one of their own. There's Netflix, which proudly stands as both trendsetter and trailblazer. There's Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Hulu, AppleTV+, YouTubeTV, and so on and so forth. In a world where much of technology is entirely focused on bringing more and more convenience to one's life, streaming services are an ingenious addition. They remove the hassle of having to rent or buy physical copies, their collections can be watched on repeat for months, and can even act as platforms for studio-exclusive content (such as Disney+ and the MarvelCinematic Universe). Streaming services are simply the next stepping point from the likes of Blockbuster, and will probably be around for longer.
Common Sense Media is an entertainment-based company, that revolves around providing users with recommendations and reviews. This research of theirs is less of an advertisement, and more of a general warning regarding cybersecurity threats faced by the individual. Due to just how commonplace streaming services have become, one would expect their security measures to be top notch. Yet, however, that isn't the case with all of them. Common Sense Media's study assessed over 150 different factors, and 10 different streaming services.
The service with the best overall sense of online security ended up being YouTubeTV, checking the most amount of Common Sense Media's criteria off. However, it is AppleTV+ that takes the cake for most secure, with YouTubeTV still proving to be potentially troublesome for users. The streaming service with the worst possible practices of all our options ends up being Netflix, surprisingly enough. The service that started it all is also the leading example of what not to do with an online service's security measures. Despite such a bad security score, Netflix, along with Amazon Prime, Disney+, and YouTubeTV are the only streaming giants that don't sell a user's personal data.
Ultimately, there's a lot of pushing and pulling, when it comes to these results. A lot of bad cybersecurity practices balance each other out since each streaming service has something unique that provides users with a safe haven. Be it Netflix's refusal to sell data, AppleTV+ and its management of Ad Tracking and Transparency, or even YouTubeTV's educational value to the youth, there's a lot of good and bad to sift through. However, with just how popular these platforms are, one wishes that it wasn't all such a cybersecurity risk in the first place.
Read next: Statista Global Consumer Survey shows how vastly the use of tech devices has increased within US, UK and Germany
Streaming services are everywhere, with almost every large media-based corporation doing their best to set up one of their own. There's Netflix, which proudly stands as both trendsetter and trailblazer. There's Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Hulu, AppleTV+, YouTubeTV, and so on and so forth. In a world where much of technology is entirely focused on bringing more and more convenience to one's life, streaming services are an ingenious addition. They remove the hassle of having to rent or buy physical copies, their collections can be watched on repeat for months, and can even act as platforms for studio-exclusive content (such as Disney+ and the MarvelCinematic Universe). Streaming services are simply the next stepping point from the likes of Blockbuster, and will probably be around for longer.
Common Sense Media is an entertainment-based company, that revolves around providing users with recommendations and reviews. This research of theirs is less of an advertisement, and more of a general warning regarding cybersecurity threats faced by the individual. Due to just how commonplace streaming services have become, one would expect their security measures to be top notch. Yet, however, that isn't the case with all of them. Common Sense Media's study assessed over 150 different factors, and 10 different streaming services.
The service with the best overall sense of online security ended up being YouTubeTV, checking the most amount of Common Sense Media's criteria off. However, it is AppleTV+ that takes the cake for most secure, with YouTubeTV still proving to be potentially troublesome for users. The streaming service with the worst possible practices of all our options ends up being Netflix, surprisingly enough. The service that started it all is also the leading example of what not to do with an online service's security measures. Despite such a bad security score, Netflix, along with Amazon Prime, Disney+, and YouTubeTV are the only streaming giants that don't sell a user's personal data.
Ultimately, there's a lot of pushing and pulling, when it comes to these results. A lot of bad cybersecurity practices balance each other out since each streaming service has something unique that provides users with a safe haven. Be it Netflix's refusal to sell data, AppleTV+ and its management of Ad Tracking and Transparency, or even YouTubeTV's educational value to the youth, there's a lot of good and bad to sift through. However, with just how popular these platforms are, one wishes that it wasn't all such a cybersecurity risk in the first place.
Read next: Statista Global Consumer Survey shows how vastly the use of tech devices has increased within US, UK and Germany
