Class Action Says Hallmark Cards Shares Website Visitors’ Info with Facebook Without Permission

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A proposed class action alleges Hallmark Cards has illegally disclosed website visitors’ identities and video-viewing habits to Facebook without consent.

The 16-page lawsuit claims that when consumers watch video greeting cards at HallmarkVideoGreetingCards.com, the retailer secretly reports their personal details to Facebook, including the title of each video they viewed, its corresponding URL and every time they clicked a button to play the video. In addition to viewing data, Hallmark also discloses an individual’s Facebook ID (FID), an identifier anyone can append to the end of Facebook.com to identify a Facebook profile and access all publicly listed personal information therein, the case says.

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Facebook uses this data to connect a consumer’s activity on Hallmark’s website with their profile, the suit asserts. This practice can be confirmed by downloading an “off-site activity” report that the social media giant says provides a “summary of activity that businesses and organizations share with us about your interactions, such as visiting their apps or websites,” the complaint states.

The complaint explains that Facebook improves its targeted advertising capabilities by monitoring users’ “offsite” activities and learning more about their interests beyond what they freely disclose.

The filing claims Facebook gets a hold of outside data by instructing advertisers, like Hallmark, to integrate a programming code known as the “Facebook Tracking Pixel” into the back end of their websites. Per the complaint, Hallmark uses the pixel to capture visitors’ interactions with its website and send a record of the events to Facebook.

“Why? So Facebook can bombard the person with more ads urging the person to buy products from [Hallmark Cards],” the case contests.

According to the case, Hallmark Cards’ failure to obtain consumers’ written permission before disseminating their personally identifiable information to a third party violates the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).

“Given the nature of Defendants’ business, the content of videos that visitors watch is potentially highly sensitive. Visitors would be shocked and appalled to know that Defendants secretly disclose to Facebook all of key data regarding a visitors’ viewing habits,” the filing charges.

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone in the United States who watched video content on HallmarkVideoGreetingCards.com and whose personally identifiable information was disclosed by Hallmark Cards to Facebook.

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