Frosties or Sugar Puffs, Netflix stored all of your Black Mirror: Bandersnatch choices

Netflix says it stored ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ user data to “improve this model of storytelling in the context of a show or movie.”

Netflix’s first ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ movie debuted with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. (Netflix)

Michael Veale from the University of London used his GDPR right to request information on data being stored by Netflix. The company acknowledged that it indeed stored users' choices on its servers. Netflix, however, defended the move saying it was aimed at personalising viewing experience for users.

Netflix cited an example from the scene where viewers had to choose between Frosties or Sugar Puffs for Stefan. If users chose Frosties, they might see an "advertisement on television in the background for that cereal in a later video segment."

Netflix also said it stored data to "improve this model of storytelling in the context of a show or movie."

"…when you make a choice branching narrative, we use that choice to determine which video segment to display. The connection of choice and video segment is pre-determined by how the story was constructed," explained Netflix.

Remember everyone quickly speculating whether Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was a data mining experiment. I used my GDPR right of access to find out more. (short thread) #Bandersnatch

— Michael Veale (@mikarv) February 12, 2019

The researcher also received a web link where an encrypted file stored all his choices on Bandersnatch. He could unlock the file using a key provided by Netflix in a .csv and PDF file format.

Veale also noted how his request to Netflix for data storage had to be specified with detailed reasons.

Last month, Netflix had officially shared some insight on some of the Black Mirror: Bandersnatch choices users had made. CEO Reed Hastings said that most of users had chosen 'Frosties'.

"On the biggest day of Stefan's life, over 60% of his friends from the future fed him Frosties," said the company in a tweet last month.