Why I Don't Use Hulu Plus

We are the kind of people who don't have cable. I think the cable and satellite companies are a bunch of crooks with their overpriced packages, required equipment that forces you into a rental agreement, and unjustifiable added taxes and fees.

We are NOT the kind of people who don't watch TV. Thankfully, we have lots of other options for consuming all the shows we care about. We use a digital antenna to get local programming (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and the CW) for free. We have a subscription for Netflix, of course, where we do most of our watching. I also go on Hulu to watch shows on their free platform like The Daily Show and SNL. And, most recently, we signed up for Amazon Prime, where we have access to some great shows that Netflix doesn't stream.

But every now and then I think it would be nice to try Hulu Plus. There are a few shows on channels like HGTV that I would like to watch along with some old shows like Seinfeld that are only available on their paid streaming service. I've thought about it for almost a year and finally got ready to pull the trigger last week.

I read through the privacy policy along with the terms and conditions - yes, I am the kind of person who actually does that. I like to know what kind of access I'm giving away before I give it away. Just as I was about to start filling out my information, I checked one last thing - the address bar at the top. A secure website will have a green padlock icon and the https: will be green as well.

That's when things fell apart. The Hulu Plus website sign up didn't have the nice green icon it had a yellow caution triangle. Unsure of what exactly the problem was, I clicked on the icon and got this information:

"This site is using a weak security configuration, so your connection may not be private."
AND
"This site is using outdated security settings."

Unacceptable! How does a company of this size, in this day and age get away with outdated, weak security settings when they are asking you for your credit card information. Perhaps they should back off their advertising budget until they can invest in proper security.

Sorry Hulu. I demand more as a consumer.