Class Action Says WebMD Disclosed User Info to Facebook to Boost Targeted Advertising

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A proposed class action alleges the entity that runs WebMD.com has wrongfully disclosed the personally identifiable information of certain website visitors to Facebook in order to enhance its own targeted advertising abilities and in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). 

The 29-page lawsuit alleges defendant MH Sub I, LLC  uses Facebook’s tracking pixel on its website, including on pages that feature videos, to capture the details of what pages a visitor with a Facebook account views and what buttons they click. When the pixel captures a WebMD visitor’s actions, it sends a record to Facebook, who then “processes it, analyzes it, and assimilates it” into its own datasets, the case says. 

From there, WebMD, as an advertiser, can build custom audiences with the help of Facebook’s data. According to the suit, WebMD discloses video viewer information to Facebook so it can better match the individuals to their Facebook profiles, which in turn allows WebMD to better target its own revenue-generating advertisements.

The lawsuit says that the VPPA prohibits a “video tape service provider” from knowingly disclosing personally identifiable information concerning any of the provider’s consumers. 

WebMD hosts hundreds of videos that can be found on its homepage and embedded into articles, the case states. On the back end of WebMD’s site, the Facebook tracking pixel transmits to Facebook information on, but not limited to page view, button click, and “microdata,” all of which reveal which video a WebMD subscriber has watched, according to the suit. 

More specifically, a WebMD subscriber who watches a video on the site while also logged into Facebook transmits to Facebook a “c_user” cookie, which contains an unencrypted Facebook ID, the lawsuit states. According to the complaint, Facebook, at a minimum, uses the c_user cookie alongside two others, the fr and _fbp cookies, to link Facebook IDs, which amount to personally identifiable information, and corresponding Facebook profiles. 

“By compelling a visitor’s browser to disclose the fr and _fbp cookies alongside event data for videos, WebMD knowingly discloses information sufficiently permitting an ordinary person to identify a specific individual’s video viewing behavior,” the complaint reads. 

Further, the case says, when a user signs up via email to subscribe to the site, WebMD’s pixel will transmit this information to Facebook. When a subscriber later navigates WebMD, the Facebook tracking pixel will transmit this “identifier” alongside a previous data event, according to the suit. An individual’s email address enables Facebook to match certain WebMD event data with their Facebook profile, which serves to help WebMD, in turn, enhance its targeted advertising, including by “[i]ncreas[ing] the number of attributed conversions” and “[its] Custom Audience size” and “[d]ecreas[ing] the cost per conversion.”

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons in the United States who have a Facebook account, subscribed to WebMD and viewed videos on WebMD’s website. 

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