Class Action Claims Forbes Secretly Shares Subscribers’ Video Viewing Data with Facebook

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A proposed class action claims that Forbes Media LLC has unlawfully disclosed subscribers’ personal information to Facebook without consent.

According to the 23-page lawsuit, the defendant uses code embedded on Forbes.com to collect information about website visitors—including what videos they view on the site. Per the case, the company shares this data with Facebook in order to “later retarget [subscribers] for advertisements.”

The suit alleges Forbes has violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act by sharing subscribers’ personally identifiable information with the social media giant without the individuals’ knowledge or consent.

Facebook, the suit says, generates revenue through advertising and, in marketing its advertising services to customers, places special emphasis on its ability to effectively target users by surveilling their online activities. Per the suit, one of the business tools offered to advertisers is Facebook’s tracking pixel, a piece of code that can be integrated into an advertiser’s website to track visitors and their actions.

The lawsuit says the Facebook tracking pixel embedded on Forbes’ website uses first- and third-party cookies to collect data about which pages a website visitor views, whether those pages contain videos, and whether the visitor has recently logged into a Facebook account. Per the case, Facebook uses the information shared by Forbes to link a subscriber’s Facebook ID with their corresponding Facebook profile. By combining this information with the event data shared by Forbes, Facebook is able to determine which videos on Forbes.com a certain Facebook user has watched, the suit relays.

Further, the lawsuit alleges Forbes uses the Facebook pixel’s “Advanced Matching” feature to scan form fields that contain website visitors’ email addresses and first and last names. Thus, when a subscriber logs into their Forbes.com account, the company discloses to Facebook the individual’s name and email address, which can then be linked with the person’s subsequent activity on the site, the case says.

The lawsuit contends that Forbes, by compelling each website visitor’s browser to disclose their name and email and the cookies that identify their activity and browser information, has shared data that allows “an ordinary person” to identify specific individuals’ video viewing behavior.

The case looks to cover anyone in the U.S. who has a Facebook account and a Forbes account and viewed videos on Forbes.com.

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