Comcast Discloses Video Viewing Information to Facebook Class Action

Comcast Corporation is the owner of Today.com, a website and app with digital subscribers. The complaint for this class action alleges that Comcast violates the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by disclosing the Personal Viewing Information of Today.com visitors to Meta, Inc., or Facebook, without the visitors’ consent. The complaint alleges that Comcast collects this information and shares it through the use of cookies, software development kits (SDKs), and pixels, notably the Facebook pixel.

The class for this action is all persons in the US who have a digital subscription to an online website owned or operated by Comcast who had their Personal Viewing Information disclosed to Facebook by Comcast.

The complaint alleges, “The VPPA prohibits ‘video tape service providers,’ such as Today.com, from knowingly disclosing consumers’ personally identifiable information, including ‘information which identifies a person as having requested or obtained specific video materials or services from a video tape provider,’ without express consent in a stand-alone form.”

At least some of this disclosure happens through the Facebook pixel, a bit of code that can be installed on websites like Today.com or its app that can track and disclose to Facebook what videos subscribers view, along with the subscribers’ Facebook ID (FID).

Significantly, this information—the videos viewed and the viewer’s FID—is shared with Facebook as a single data point. The complaint alleges, “Because the digital subscriber’s FID uniquely identifies an individual’s Facebook user account, Facebook—or any other ordinary person—can use it to quickly and easily locate, access, and view digital subscribers’ corresponding Facebook profile.” In other words, the pixel discloses the videos on Today.com watched by specific viewers.

According to the complaint, viewers are not told that their Personal Viewing Information is being passed on, and the process is “automatic and invisible” to them.

When registering for Today.com, users sign up for a newsletter, surrendering their email addresses and other personal information. The complaint alleges that the users are not told that their Personal Viewing Information at the site or on the app will be disclosed to others, and that they are not asked for their consent to this disclosure.

After that, when they watch videos at Today.com, Comcast collects information, the complaint says. The complaint quotes Today.com’s Privacy Policy as admitting that it collects “content you view and duration.” But the complaint alleges that the Privacy Policy does not tell users that this information will be shared with third parties, such as Facebook.

The complaint claims that Comcast profits from giving this information to Facebook and that Facebook then uses the information to expose users to targeted advertising.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Collecting Personal Data Without Notice/Consent, Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties, Using Your Private Information Without Consent, Your Privacy