CNBC.com Subscribers’ Personal Data Secretly Shared with Facebook, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims certain CNBC.com subscribers’ personal information has been secretly disclosed to Facebook without consent.

Are you a Facebook user who’s watched videos on CNBC.com? Let us know here.

The 13-page lawsuit says that the media giant has directly violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits a “video tape service provider” such as CNBC.com from disclosing consumers’ personally identifying information without consent.

The suit alleges that CNBC’s “surreptitious” disclosures to Facebook include subscribers’ unique Facebook IDs and the name and URL of any video content they viewed while on CNBC.com.

The case contends that CNBC monetizes its website—whose thousands of subscribers have provided their personal data to create accounts—by using a Facebook tracking pixel to collect and transmit user information back to the social media company. According to the complaint, a Facebook tracking pixel is essentially a coded analytics tool that a company can embed into its website to gather personal data and record visitors’ interactions with web pages.

By utilizing a tracking pixel, the filing states, CNBC.com is able to collect and report back to Facebook the details of any videos a visitor watches and their Facebook ID—an identifier uniquely linked to an individual Facebook account. This combination of data can be used to personally identify subscribers in connection with their video viewing behavior and preferences, the lawsuit summarizes.

“The surreptitious disclosure of [personal data] (i.e., an individual’s [Facebook] ID paired with a URL and the name/description of video content they view) is an outrageous invasion of privacy and would be offensive to a reasonable person,” the suit charges.

The plaintiffs in the case—CNBC.com subscribers who reside in California and Illinois, respectively—have each watched innumerable videos on CNBC.com, the complaint says. In doing so, their personal information was shared with Facebook by the defendant without their knowledge or consent, the filing alleges.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who has a Facebook account, has subscribed to CNBC.com and has watched one or more videos while on the website.

Are you a Facebook user who’s watched videos on CNBC.com? Let us know here.