Stronger Together: Cross Service Media Recommendations

This article presents a way to use an individual’s entire media streaming history from all their providers to inform recommendations without any of the contributing services needing to process or hold the data. To enable this, the user’s personal data is held in a Solid pod, a secure personal web server designed to give the user greater control over their personal data supporting a more flexible approach to how it is used. We present an application and supporting architecture based around Solid pods that can process media consumption data in a way that is controlled by the user, generating a general-purpose “Media Profile” that media organizations can use to inform their recommendation services. This profile could form the basis of an open standard and would allow broadcasters to offer audiences more relevant content in a way that limits their data liability risk and safeguards their privacy. We will demonstrate the system in operation along with a platform and supporting application.