Is Udemy Sharing User Data with Facebook? Attorneys Investigate Potential Privacy Violations

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are gathering people with Udemy.com accounts to take action against the online learning platform over potential privacy violations.

It’s believed that Udemy may have used a tracking tool called the Meta pixel on its website to secretly gather data about accountholders – specifically, their Facebook IDs and details about the instructional video courses they’ve watched on Udemy.com – and pass along the data to Meta without each person’s informed, written consent.

Attorneys suspect Udemy may have violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing consumers’ private information without permission.

If you have both a Udemy account and a Facebook account and have taken a course on Udemy.com, you may have a claim worth as much as $2,500.

How Could Udemy Be Sharing Data with Facebook? 

Many website operators gather data about the people who visit their websites by using an invisible tracking tool called the Meta (formerly known as Facebook) pixel.

The pixel, which can be embedded on any webpage, can be programmed to record every action a visitor takes, such as the buttons they click, the searches they perform and the content they view.

In the case of Udemy.com, attorneys are specifically looking into whether the website is tracking which video-based courses its users have watched and sending that information to Meta along with each person’s Facebook ID. A Facebook ID is a unique identifier linked to an individual’s Facebook profile and could potentially be used to match up a specific person with the content they’ve watched on Udemy’s website.

In general, the data collected by a website through the Meta pixel can be used by both the website operator and the social media giant to better target advertisements to their users.

It’s believed that Udemy’s suspected data-sharing practices may violate the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits “video tape service providers” from disclosing to third parties any information that identifies the video materials a person has requested or watched without their consent.

Is This a Lawsuit? What Am I Signing Up For, Exactly? 

You are not signing up for a lawsuit, but rather a process known as mass arbitration. This is a relatively new legal technique that, like a class action lawsuit, allows a large group of people to take action and seek compensation from a company over an alleged wrongdoing. Here is a quick explanation of mass arbitration from our blog:

[M]ass arbitration occurs when hundreds or thousands of consumers file individual arbitration claims against the same company over the same issue at the same time. The aim of a mass arbitration proceeding is to grant relief on a large scale (similar to a class action lawsuit) for those who sign up.”

Udemy’s terms of use state that users agree to waive their right to file a class action lawsuit against the company. Instead, users are required to resolve any disputes through arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution that takes place outside of court before a neutral arbitrator, as opposed to a judge or jury. 

It’s for this reason that attorneys working with ClassAction.org have decided to handle this matter as a mass arbitration rather than a class action lawsuit.

How Much Does This Cost? 

It costs nothing to sign up, and you’ll only need to pay if the attorneys win money on your behalf. Their payment will come as a percentage of your award.

If they don’t win your claim, you don’t pay.

How Much Money Could I Get? 

There are no guarantees as to how much money you could get or whether your claim will be successful. The VPPA, however, provides that companies may be responsible for paying consumers $2,500 for violations of the law.

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