Bloomberg Discloses Subscribers’ Information to Facebook Without Consent, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action alleges Bloomberg L.P. discloses subscribers’ personal information to Meta Platforms (Facebook) without the individuals’ consent.

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating this issue as a mass arbitration. Learn more about that investigation here.

According to the 21-page case, Bloomberg uses cookies, software development kits (SDKs) and pixels installed on Bloomberg.com to collect and share visitors’ personal information, including the details of any videos they watch on the site or its corresponding app. Per the suit, digital subscribers are never informed that their personal viewing information is shared with the social media giant, and Bloomberg fails to obtain their written consent prior to disclosing the data, the case says.

The lawsuit alleges Bloomberg has violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a federal law that prohibits “video tape service providers” such as the defendant from knowingly sharing consumers’ personally identifiable information, including details of the videos they watch, without first obtaining the individuals’ written consent to do so.

Per the case, Bloomberg collects subscriber information through, among other methods, a Facebook tracking pixel installed on its website. The pixel is an invisible piece of code that collects data about each user’s devices and activities so the owner of the website can use that information to show the individual targeted ads, the suit relays.

According to the lawsuit, whenever a Bloomberg.com subscriber enters the defendant’s website or app and watches a video, the Facebook pixel tracks the name of the video, its URL and the subscriber’s Facebook ID and sends the information to Facebook as one data point. Critically, this information is not anonymous but contains a unique identifier—a subscriber’s Facebook ID—that allows an individual Facebook user to be identified and associated with their video viewing habits on Bloomberg.com, the suit says.

As the case tells it, a person’s Facebook ID (FID) can be used by the social media giant, or “any other person,” for that matter, to look up an individual’s name and Facebook profile.

“Simply put,” the complaint states, “with only an FID and the video content name and URL—all of which Defendant knowingly and readily provides to Facebook without any consent from the digital subscribers—any ordinary person could learn the identity of the digital subscriber and the specific video or media content they requested on Bloomberg.com website [sic].”

Moreover, Bloomberg’s sharing of subscriber information with Facebook allows the social media giant to build even more robust profiles of its users and “add[] to its trove of personally identifiable data,” the lawsuit says. Meanwhile, the advertising benefits and information services that Bloomberg gleans from its sharing of subscribers’ data allow the company to “profit[] handsomely” at the expense of users’ privacy, the case alleges.

The suit looks to represent anyone in the U.S. with a digital subscription to an online website owned or operated by Bloomberg who had their personal viewing information disclosed to Facebook by the defendant.

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