Privacy Arbitration: Is Cinemark Illegally Sharing Your Ticket Purchase History?
Last Updated on January 16, 2024
At A Glance
- This Alert Affects:
- Anyone with both a Cinemark and Facebook account who purchased movie tickets on Cinemark.com or the Cinemark app within the past two years.
- What’s Going On?
- Attorneys working with ClassAction.org have reason to believe that Cinemark may be using tracking tools on its website and app to secretly share details about users’ ticket purchase history with Facebook. They’re now gathering consumers to take action over potential privacy violations.
- What You Can Do
- If you have a Cinemark account and a Facebook account and bought movie tickets on Cinemark’s website or app within the past two years, join others taking action by filling out the form linked below.
- What Am I Signing Up For, Exactly?
- You’re signing up for what’s known as “mass arbitration,” which involves hundreds or thousands of consumers bringing individual arbitration claims against the same company at the same time and over the same issue. This is different from class action litigation and takes place outside of court.
- Does This Cost Anything?
- It costs nothing to sign up, and the attorneys will only get paid if they win your claim.
- How Much Could I Get?
- While there are no guarantees, the federal Video Privacy Protection Act states that consumers who had their rights violated under the law could be owed $2,500.
Did you buy movie tickets online from Cinemark?
If so, join others taking action. It doesn’t cost anything, and all you have to do is fill out a quick form using the link below.
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org suspect that Cinemark may have violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing consumers’ private information without permission and are now looking into possible legal action.
Specifically, they believe that the movie theater chain may be using tracking tools on its website and app to secretly transmit details about users’ ticket purchases—including movie titles—to Facebook. This data may tie a user’s movie watching history to their Facebook ID, a unique identifier that can be used to match the individual to their Facebook profile.
If you have a Cinemark account and a Facebook account and purchased movie tickets on Cinemark.com or the Cinemark app within the past two years, join others taking action by filling out this quick, secure form. You may have a claim worth as much as $2,500.
How Could a Movie Theater Be Sharing Data with Facebook?
Many website and app operators gather data about users through invisible tracking tools that operate in the background of their websites and apps.
These tools can be programmed to record every action a user takes, including the buttons they click, the searches they perform and the content they view—and this data can then be shared with Facebook and other third parties for advertising purposes.
In Cinemark’s case, attorneys are specifically looking into whether the movie theater chain is tracking information about people who purchase movie tickets on Cinemark.com and the Cinemark app. It’s believed that this data—including the titles of movies users have purchased tickets for—is potentially being shared with Facebook along with each person’s Facebook ID. A Facebook ID is a unique identifier linked to an individual’s Facebook profile and could be used to match up a specific person with their movie ticket purchase history.
The attorneys suspect that Cinemark may have violated 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.”
Cinemark’s terms and conditions require website and app users to resolve most 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. For this reason, attorneys working with ClassAction.org have decided to handle this privacy 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 each for violations of the law.
Sign Up and Take Action
If you have a Facebook account and a Cinemark account and purchased movie tickets on Cinemark.com or the Cinemark app within the past two years, sign up by filling out this quick, secure form.
Before commenting, please review our comment policy.