Paramount Shared CBS Video Viewers’ Info with Facebook Without Consent, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action alleges Paramount Global Corp. has unlawfully disclosed certain information about consumers who watch videos on CBS.com with Facebook without consent. 

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating this issue as a mass arbitration. Learn more about that investigation here.

The 23-page case alleges Paramount has violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by knowingly transmitting CBS video viewers’ personally identifiable information to “unrelated third parties.” To accomplish this, Paramount has integrated into CBS.com a Facebook “tracking pixel” that, once activated, tracks website visitors and the actions they take, according to the suit. 

Once the Facebook tracking pixel captures an action, it sends a record of it to Facebook, who then processes, analyzes and assimilates it into datasets to bolster its targeted advertising capabilities, the lawsuit says. 

Per the complaint, the Facebook tracking pixel on CBS.com transmits certain events to the social media platform that permit an ordinary person to identify a video and the video’s content. The “PageView” event discloses to Facebook a webpage’s URL and whether a viewer has an account with CBS, while “Button Click” discloses a video’s title and when a user clicks pause or play, the case relays. The “Microdata” event discloses to Facebook a video’s title, the suit says. 

When a CBS.com visitor watches a video on the site while logged into Facebook, Paramount compels the person’s browser to transmit to Facebook a “c_user” cookie, which contains a visitor’s unencrypted Facebook ID, the case states. When a visitor has recently logged out of Facebook and views a video on CBS.com, Paramount sends a smaller set of cookies that contain, at least, a person’s encrypted Facebook ID and browser identifier, according to the case. 

A person who has never created a Facebook account and watches a CBS.com video will cause three cookies to be sent to Facebook, the lawsuit continues. These cookies, the suit says, contain, at least, an abbreviated and encrypted value that identifies a user’s browser.

At minimum, Facebook uses three cookies to link Facebook IDs and corresponding profiles, the lawsuit says. With a Facebook ID number, “[a]nyone can identify a Facebook profile—and all personal information publicly listed on that profile—by appending the Facebook ID to the end of Facebook.com,” the suit relays. 

According to the filing, Paramount discloses this information so it can better match a visitor to their Facebook profile, which thereby allows the company to better track analytics and target its ads. 

Further, the case alleges Paramount has customized its Facebook pixel to collect a CBS.com subscriber’s full name, email, zip code, gender and birthday, which are disclosed to Facebook to be matched with a corresponding profile. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons in the United States who have Facebook and CBS.com accounts, and viewed videos on CBS.com. 

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