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Get ready for Netflix to litter your Facebook feed

Last week, the Senate quietly (they didn't even record the vote) approved a change in the language of the Video Privacy Protection Act. The bill—passed unianimously—makes it so that video rental companies (What up, Netflix?) only have to ask for your permission once to share your viewing history for two years—like with, say, an upfront privacy agreement. Historically, they would have had to ask for permission every time they wanted to dish on the stuff you've been streaming.

The new version of the VPPA will essentially allow companies like Netflix to get your permission once and proceed to shout your viewing history from the rooftops. Or, at least make it so that what you watch pops up on your friends' Facebook feeds so that everyone will know what you did last summer (watch every episode of Arrested Development... twice).

My account is shared (I'm not made of money, people). It seems as though someone has been watching Season 4 of Merlin. I couldn't tell you why. It does swell my heart with pride, though, to report that someone other than myself recently screened Louis C.K.'s Chewed Up stand-up special. Also, someone watched Varsity Blues on Christmas Eve and probably owes the rest of us a written apology of some sort because Varsity Blues isn't Home Alone or Die Hard or Love Actually.

See what I just did? Now, take that last paragraph and multiply it by the number of Facebook friends you have. That's what life is going to be like—hundreds of friends, family, marginal friends, and acquaintances (and that girl with the on-again, off-again boyfriend you met at that party junior year, who was minoring in criminology but wasn't really sure if she was going to stick with it) clogging your Facebook feed as they plunge into Season 3 of Burn Notice. Get. Excited. [h/t Mother Jones, Ars Technica]