BBC Radioplayer app: 'gender' now required

[thatdamnwoman]

I've used the BBC radioplayer app to listen and download radio progs for years. This morning when I opened it up I found I was required to register email address, dob, password and gender. I was allowed to choose between male, female, other and prefer not to say.

I've sent a 'sex not gender' email to complain. This is a war of attrition, isn't it? They are determined to remove sex from the agenda.

Urrgh - I'm also a radio iPlayer addict. I've been staying logged in to avoid being forced across to the Sounds app. I too will email to complain.

On another note, why is my sex relevant to this service? Internet algorithms already think I'm a middle aged man because I buy history books and tools instead of diet books and nail polish.

I can only assume the BBC will be offering similarly sterotypical recommendations based on 'gender identity'.

I also can't see why it's relevant.

Bloody John Lewis send me a letter with my Partnership Card vouchers suggesting I might like to buy beauty and grooming products and chocolate. I've never (as far as I remember) bought beauty and grooming products from John Lewis. I'm more likely to buy sportswear or a new kettle. I do wonder what men get in their letters.

weezol I have stuck to the Iplayer app because of the complaints I've read about the Sounds app (which is terribly W1A). I haven't had to log in at all (scurries to check phone). Ironically the programme Business Matters on the World Service which I was listening to on the Iplayer app the other day recommended clearing cookies at least once a month and explained brilliantly how firms monetize information from the cookies. I realized I'd probably earned firms hundreds as they auction off the information on me. OP let us know when you hear back from the BBC.

This is the old pink iPlayer Radio app on my phone I'm talking about. I, too, have avoided moving to Sounds because I've heard people talking about how it doesn't work well on their phones.

Am beginning to have increasingly serious and informed conversations with people worried about their data and the trail they leave and how it can be used and tracked.

If I were to guess I would say they want to sell data, and recording gender (or sex) makes it more valuable.
I don't know if the BBC is allowed to do that though.

The iplayer app was asking for (optional) gender when I signed up to it which must be at least a couple of years ago now. At the time I grumbled about it; DD pointed out that there was no reason at all why my sex would be relevant to my program choices, so maybe 'gender' was more accurate in this context. (She understands the difference!) IIRC I went with prefer not to say.

I suppose whether they need either sex or gender at all depends what they're doing with the data. If they have no good reason then they shouldn't ask.

I know my data is for sale, I quite enjoy 'gaming' marketing algorithms. For example, I've figured out most of them for Kindle and online supermarket shopping and saved myself a fortune.

weezol do tell .....

For a successful algorithm, no other info than what you have listened to previously should be necessary for recommendations.

If you have previously listened to gardening programmes, it should know you like gardening programmes.

It doesn’t even need to know you like gardening, let alone your sex/gender.

All it should know is your name, and what you listened/watched previously. Not a single thing else