Vice Media Disclosure of Video Viewing via Meta Pixel Class Action

When you view videos online, is anyone taking note of the videos you watch? This class action brings suit against Vice Media, LLC, alleging it has violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by disclosing to Meta Platforms, Inc. users’ identities and titles of videos they watched without first getting the consent of those users. Meta owns the Facebook and Instagram platforms.

The Nationwide Class is all persons living in the US who asked for and viewed video content on Vice’s website and were Facebook or Instagram users while Meta’s Pixel was active on Vice’s website, and whose personally identifiable information and video viewing content were disclosed to Meta through the Pixel.

A California Subclass has also been defined for this action for all persons in the above class living in California.

The complaint explains the violation of the law it’s alleging in brief: “The VPPA prohibits ‘video tape service providers,’ such as Vice, from knowingly disclosing consumers’ personally identifiable information (‘PII’), including ‘information which identifies a person as having requested or obtained specific video materials or services from a video tape provider,’ without the person having expressly given consent in a standalone consent form.”

However, the complaint alleges that Vice does just that, through the use of a bit of programming code called the Meta Pixel. The Pixel tracks visitors as they interact with a website, recording what searches they make and what items they select or view.

After that, the complaint alleges, “[t]he Meta Pixel sends information to Meta in a data packet containing PII, such as the users’ IP address, name, email, or phone number. Meta then stores this data on its own servers.”

Through the use of the Meta Pixel, the complaint alleges, Vice is able to disclose to Meta the user’s Facebook Profile ID (FID) along with the titles of any videos watched. The FID identifies the user’s Facebook account.

The complaint argues that those who watch videos on Vice do not consent to having their video viewing matched with their identities and disclosed to Meta, via a standalone form or otherwise. And Meta isn’t the only party that could make use of the information, the complaint alleges, because once a party has a person’s FID, they can get a large amount of personal information about the person from their Facebook page.

The purpose of the Meta Pixel, the complaint alleges, is to help companies like Vice better target their advertisements, to increase the business’s profits. According to the complaint, the Pixel also gives businesses a greater incentive to advertise through Facebook or other platforms owned by Meta.

“In addition,” the complaint claims, “even if the business does not advertise with Meta, Meta Pixel assists Meta in building more fulsome profiles of its own users, which in turn allows Meta to profit from providing more targeted ads. This data can also be used to develop and refine Meta’s machine learning algorithms, including those used to serve targeted advertisements to Facebook users, and others.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties, VPPA, Your Privacy