Disney+ requires users to provide birthday and gender details

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The original story (published November 16, 2022) follows:

Disney+ has a ton of great new series premiering in November, led by Disenchanted, which premieres on November 18, 2022.

However, Disney+ subscribers are unhappy after a recent email they received.

Disney+ requires birthday and gender details

Recently, several users have expressed their confusion over Disney+’s request for date of birth and gender details (1,2,3,4,5).

Many have received an email from Disney+ requiring them to provide information about their age or birthday and gender by December 8, 2022. Subscribers will no longer be allowed to use Disney+ if they do not comply.

The Disney+ user base has expressed displeasure with this decision because they believe it violates their privacy. They believe that people should not be forced to provide personal information that they are not comfortable sharing.

Most users have an understanding of why they are being asked their age, but are dumbfounded as to why they have to reveal their gender in order to continue streaming.

@Disney @DisneyPlus Disney now requires your gender and age and threatens to cut off Disney+ if you refuse. I’ll make you a better one. How can I cancel my annual service 4 full refund. I know you want demographic data, but not by coercion.
Source

Why does @Disney+ require the account holder’s gender. What does that have to do with watching. Age I understand, but gender?
Source

In an FAQ, Disney has given the reasons behind this move. The age or date of birth is needed to verify that a user is 18 or older to target ads, personalize content, comply with age-related legal obligations, and more.

Additionally, they have clarified that subscribers will not be blocked from watching any particular show or movie based on their date of birth. Only parental controls can be used to do that.

The Disney+ Subscriber Agreement requires you to be 18 years of age or the legal age in your state or territory to purchase Disney+. By collecting your date of birth and establishing a billing relationship with you (on our site or through a third party), we confirm your eligibility for Disney+. We may also use your date of birth as described below under “Are there other ways you use my date of birth.”
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Although providing a date of birth is mandatory for all Disney+ subscribers, they can use the “Prefer not to say” option when registering their gender. Also, they can change it whenever they want.

Furthermore, if you are using Disney+ on an iOS device running version 11, 12 or 13, you may receive an unknown error message related to date of birth or gender collection.

That being said, Disney could have reached out to their user base in a more open and transparent way so they wouldn’t have felt pressured to reveal their private information.

18:28 (IST): In response to one of the tweets, Disney support released the following statement regarding the issue related to gender information:

Thanks for getting in touch, Sarah! While gender is required for all Disney+ accounts and profiles set to 13 or higher, all users have the option to choose “Prefer not to say.” For now, we’ll be sure to share your feedback.
Source

8:30 PM (IST): Although the official deadline to continue streaming without adding age or gender details was December 8, it seems that some users have already been banned from the streaming app.

In response, Disney+ support claims that the user will be able to use the app once they enter their age and gender details.

To return to streaming, you must update your profile information with your date of birth and select a gender identity. We hope this helps! (Source)

Disney support also instructs users to either use the web or mobile app to enter their gender and age details.

You can add your date of birth and gender to a profile at any time by going to your profile settings using a web browser or the mobile app: (Source)

09:46 (IST): It seems Disney+ doesn’t just require the age and gender of the primary account owner. Reports indicate that they also request this data for each of the account profiles (1, 2, 3).

14:57 (IST): One user claims they switched to the annual plan to fix the issue where Disney Plus wouldn’t let them watch content without providing their birthday details.

12:21 PM (IST): Disney Plus support has confirmed that gender information is not required for users under 18 years of age. However, other users must provide gender details.

Hello! Disney+ requires a date of birth for all accounts to ensure the account holder is over 18. Gender is not required for profiles with a date of birth under 18. This information helps us personalize your experience. (Source)

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Disney section, so be sure to follow them as well.

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