Obama signs bill to let Facebook users share Netflix videos

President Obama signed a bill on Thursday to allow users of Facebook and other social media sites to opt in to automatically share which videos they have watched on sites like Netflix.

Facebook users could already choose to automatically reveal which songs they listened to and which articles they read. But the Video Privacy Protection Act banned the sharing of any video history information without written consent by the consumer for each video or a warrant from the police.

Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act in 1988 after the Washington City Paper published a list of videotape rentals by Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork during his contentious nomination process. Although Bork's rental history was mostly innocuous, members of Congress were outraged at the breach of privacy.

Netflix and other companies argued the law was dated and that users should be able to share their viewing habits with their friends without having to manually approve each video.

The House and Senate approved H.R. 6671, the Video Privacy Protection Act Amendments Act, late last year without objection.

When the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on an earlier version of the bill in November, Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) attached legislation that would have required police to obtain a warrant before reading people's emails, Facebook messages and other forms of electronic communication.

But Republicans expressed concern that the language would hamper police investigations, and the Senate eventually approved a version of the bill without Leahy's warrant protections.

The Democratic senator is expected to push for the email privacy protections again this Congress.

---