CBS.com accused of sharing your viewing history with Facebook, in a recent VPPA Class Action.
Paramount Global accused of sharing personal information of viewers watching videos on CBS.com with Facebook without their knowledge or consent.
CBS.com shared visitors’ video-viewing history with Facebook, alleges the VPPA Class Action.
On July 14th, Plaintiff Shannon Parcell sued Paramount Global Corp. (CBS.com) in an Illinois federal Court, alleging violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
According to the 23-page complaint, Paramount violated the VPPA by giving out personal information about CBS video viewers to “unrelated third parties”. The lawsuit claims Paramount embedded a Facebook “tracking pixel” into CBS.com, which monitors users’ activity on the website.
Once the Facebook tracking pixel detects an action, it sends a record to Facebook. Facebook processes, analyzes, and assimilates it into datasets to improve their targeted advertising capability.
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CBS.com allegedly uses a Facebook tracking pixel.
CBS.com uses the Facebook tracking pixel, accuses the VPPA Class Action. The complaint alleges that the tracking pixel, “tracks people and type of actions” they take on the website.
According to the lawsuit, Facebook employs a minimum of three cookies to associate user IDs with their respective profiles. “[A]nyone can identify a Facebook profile—and all personal information publicly listed on that profile” with just adding a “.com” to a Facebook ID number, alleges the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges, when a Facebook user watches a video on CBS.com while logged in to Facebook, Paramount forces the user’s browser to send Facebook a “c user” cookie that contains the user’s unencrypted Facebook ID. It further alleges that even if a user recently logged out of Facebook, CBS.com would send a smaller set of cookies containing, at the very least, a person’s encrypted Facebook ID and browser identifier when they view a video on CBS.com.
Even if a user has never signed up for Facebook, simply watching a video on CBS.com will result in the sending of three cookies to Facebook, the complaint alleges. That these cookies are capable of uniquely identifying a user’s browser. This information also allows Facebook to match the user with their corresponding Facebook profile, according to the complaint.
If you watch videos on CBS.com, Facebook can identify you with the list of videos you watched.
If you’re a CBS.com subscriber, your full name, email address, zip code, gender, and birthday are allegedly disclosed to Facebook.
VPPA allows consumers to recover $2500 in statutory damages for each violation they suffered. While each instance of sharing user data without consent is a separate violation.
Recently, Paramount settled a lawsuit from its shareholders for $14.75 millions. The lawsuit alleged Paramount artificially inflated the value of its stock by not disclosing allegations of sexual misconduct against its then cheif ecexutive, Leslie Moonves.
“Paramount, Moonves settle CBS shareholder #MeToo class action for $14.75 millions.”
Video streaming services might be putting your privacy at risk too.
Many video streaming platforms could be sharing your video viewing habits with third parties without your consent.
Multiple Class Actions have been filed against various online video streaming websites for similar violations. In a recent VPPA Class Actions, Perez Hilton was sued for similar violations. Another VPPA class action accused Weight Watchers for similar invasion of viewers’ privacy.
If you watch videos online, a website may have exposed your personal information without your consent. Your Privacy is worth fighting for. We can help you investigate. Please contact us to get in touch with a class action lawyer at ClassActionNews today.
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