Paramount Reveals 247Sports Subscribers’ Info to Facebook Without Consent, Class Action Claims
by Erin Shaak
Salazar v. Paramount Global
Filed: September 27, 2022 ◆§ 3:22-cv-00756
A class action alleges Paramount Global has unlawfully shared with Facebook certain personal information belonging to 247Sports.com subscribers.
A proposed class action alleges Paramount Global has violated a federal privacy law by sharing with Facebook certain personal information belonging to 247Sports.com subscribers.
The 19-page lawsuit claims Paramount has embedded tracking software on 247Sports.com, a website dedicated to college sports recruitment and transfers, and its corresponding mobile app that collects users’ information—including their Facebook IDs and the titles and URLs of videos they watch—and passes on this data to Facebook.
The case alleges Paramount has run afoul of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act by disclosing to a third party without prior express consent information that can identify a person as having requested or obtained specific video materials. Per the suit, 247Sports subscribers are never told that their personally identifiable information is being tracked and shared with Paramount’s business partners.
“Because 247Sports.com digital subscribers are not informed about this dissemination of their Personal Viewing Information – indeed, it is automatic and invisible – they cannot exercise reasonable judgment to defend themselves against the highly personal ways 247Sports.com has used and continues to use data it has about them to make money for itself.”
The lawsuit relays that Paramount has embedded a piece of code known as the Facebook pixel on its website to gather and share information about how visitors use 247Sports.com. Per the case, this tracking software is used “for the sole purpose of enriching Defendant and Facebook” given the two companies can use the collected information to better target users with advertisements.
Among the data tracked by the Facebook pixel, the suit says, are details about the videos a user watches on 247Sports.com and their Facebook ID, a unique identifier that allows the social media giant, or anyone else, for that matter, to locate a person’s Facebook profile. Because the pixel discloses this information to Facebook as one data point, Facebook can link one of its users with the specific video content they viewed on 247Sports.com, the case relays.
The lawsuit alleges Paramount has knowingly disclosed to a third party its subscribers’ information “for its own personal profit” and without obtaining written consent, as required by the VPPA.
“Thus, without telling its digital subscribers, Defendant profits handsomely from its unauthorized disclosure of its digital subscribers’ Personal Viewing Information to Facebook,” the complaint reads. “It does so at the expense of its digital subscribers’ privacy and their statutory rights under the VPPA.”
The lawsuit seeks to cover anyone in the United States with a digital subscription to a website owned or operated by Paramount Global and who had their personal video viewing information disclosed to Facebook by Paramount.
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