MLB Advanced Media Lawsuit Claims MLB.com Subscribers’ Data Secretly Shared with Facebook
Golland et al. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P.
Filed: August 20, 2024 ◆§ 1:24-cv-06270
A class action lawsuit alleges MLB Advanced Media has violated a federal privacy law by secretly sharing with Meta Platforms certain MLB.com subscriber info.
New York
A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Major League Baseball Advanced Media has violated a federal privacy law by secretly sharing with Meta Platforms certain MLB.com subscriber information, including names, addresses, detailed video viewing data and Facebook IDs.
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The 23-page privacy lawsuit accuses MLB Advanced Media, the media arm of Major League Baseball, of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by revealing to a third party without consent the titles and subject matter of videos and other audiovisual materials requested or obtained by MLB.com subscribers.
Related Reading: Video Privacy Investigations
This alleged data sharing was accomplished through a snippet of programming code known as the Meta pixel installed on MLB.com, the filing claims. The Meta pixel, formerly known as the Facebook pixel, allows website operators such as MLB Advanced Media to build in-depth profiles of website visitors by collecting information on how they interact with a site, namely for targeted advertising purposes, the complaint relays.
“In the simplest terms, the Meta Pixel installed by Defendant captures and discloses to Meta information that reveals the specific videos that a particular person viewed as a subscriber of Defendant’s website,” the proposed class action summarizes, stressing that the federal VPPA “clearly prohibits what [MLB Advanced Media] has done.”
Related Reading: MLB.com Data Privacy Lawsuits
An MLB.com subscriber’s Facebook ID is a unique string of numbers linked to their particular Facebook profile, the suit says. A person’s Facebook profile publicly identifies them by name and contains other personally identifying information, the case notes.
According to the VPPA lawsuit, the law provides that any “video tape service provider” face consequences should they knowingly disclose consumers’ personally identifiable information, such as Facebook IDs, without consent.
The MLB.com privacy lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States who, within the last two years, requested or obtained video content from MLB.com as a subscriber to the site and maintained a Facebook account at the time.
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