Buzzfeed Illegally Shared HuffingtonPost Subscribers’ Information with Facebook, Class Action Claims [DISMISSED]
Last Updated on May 4, 2023
Wright v. Buzzfeed, Inc.
Filed: September 12, 2022 ◆§ 1:22-cv-04927
A class action alleges Buzzfeed has illegally shared HuffingtonPost.com subscribers’ identities and video viewing history with Facebook without consent.
May 2, 2023 – Class Action Over Buzzfeed’s Alleged Disclosures to Facebook Dropped by Plaintiff
The proposed class action lawsuit outlined on this page was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice by the plaintiff on January 20, 2023.
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Court records show that in mid-September 2022, the parties were instructed by the court to “discuss settlement.” In a telephonic status hearing in mid-December, defendant Buzzfeed, Inc. stated its intention to “file a motion for transfer or stay” of the suit, court records show.
The next month, on January 20, 2023, the day of the defendant’s deadline to respond to the complaint, the plaintiff’s counsel filed a two-page notice of dismissal with United States District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman. The case was formally closed three days later, on January 23.
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A proposed class action alleges Buzzfeed has violated a federal privacy law by sharing HuffingtonPost.com subscribers’ identities and video viewing history with Facebook without consent.
According to the 19-page case, when subscribers visit the Buzzfeed-owned HuffPost website or app, their personal information and the titles of videos they view are tracked and disclosed to Facebook. The case argues that this practice violates the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which prohibits “video tape service providers” from revealing a consumer’s personally identifiable information–specifically, the videos they’ve requested or watched–to third parties without the individual’s written consent.
The case alleges that Facebook captures consumers’ actions on HuffingtonPost.com without their knowledge using cookies, software development kits and pixels installed. More specifically, the complaint says the Facebook tracking pixel, a piece of code embedded on the HuffPost website, “allows Facebook to know what video media one of its users viewed on HuffingtonPost.com.”
Per the complaint, once a user clicks on a video in a HuffPost.com article, the video name, URL, and the user’s Facebook ID (FID) are sent to the social media giant as one data point. An FID “uniquely identifies an individual’s Facebook user account,” the suit says, and allows Facebook can quickly locate the user’s corresponding Facebook profile. Furthermore, the case claims that any ordinary person could connect to a person’s Facebook profile with access to their FID.
As argued in the complaint, Facebook uses this information to show targeted ads based on the content the digital subscriber has viewed on the Huffington Post website or app. Buzzfeed also profits from this arrangement, the case alleges:
“Defendant could easily program the website and app so that this information is not automatically transmitted to Facebook when a subscriber views Video Media. However, it is not Defendant’s financial interest to do so because it benefits financially by providing this highly sought-after information.”
The lawsuit looks to cover anyone in the United States who has subscribed to a website owned and operated by Buzzfeed and had their personal video viewing information disclosed to Facebook by Buzzfeed.
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