Disney Deploys Third-Party Data Trackers on ESPN Website Without User Consent, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Disney has secretly embedded third-party trackers on ESPN.com to access, share and profit from visitors’ sensitive information without their consent.

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The 62-page lawsuit contends that defendant Disney DTC LLC has implemented several pixel trackers—such as the Google Ads/DoubleClick/Tag Manager tracker, Rubicon/Magnite tracker, and Comscore tracker—that, unbeknownst to website visitors, secretly track and share personal data with a number of third parties, in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Per the complaint, the detailed user data and browsing activity collected by the hidden trackers include IP addresses, pages viewed, session duration, URLs, browser and device details, and other interaction metadata. This data, the case continues, is then disclosed to a number of third-party companies, including Google, Magnite, Yahoo, Nielsen, and Comscore.

The case contends that Disney’s use of tracking technologies, which the suit says function effectively the same as a “pen register” or “trap and trace device” that can record outgoing and incoming dialing information, respectively, violates California Penal Code, given that they collect routing and addressing information for commercial purposes without any user interaction required.

Related Reading: Disney Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over Alleged YouTube Child Online Privacy Violations

“These Trackers operate in the background of the browsing session and collect detailed behavioral and technical information, which is then transmitted to external third-party servers without the users’ active awareness,” the case summarizes.

Disney, which acquired majority ownership of ESPN and its subsidiaries in a massive $19 billion deal in 1995, runs the global sports network’s entire digital media platform, including television interfaces, mobile applications, and the ESPN website, the case relays.

Through the deployment of third-party tracking technologies that curate detailed user profiles across platforms, Disney “unjustly enriche[s]” itself by turning sensitive user data into another revenue stream for the company via highly targeted advertising, the complaint argues.

“Together, these technologies function as a coordinated data collection infrastructure that allows Defendant to analyze user behavior at a highly granular level and to leverage that insight in real time for marketing optimization, user targeting, and business intelligence,” the lawsuit maintains.

The ESPN.com class action lawsuit looks to represent all individuals in California whose browsers were subject to the installation, embedding, or injection of third-party trackers by Disney during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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