Fandango Embeds Hidden Data-Tracking Pixels on RottenTomatoes.com, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Fandango secretly embeds tracking pixels made by third-party companies on the Rotten Tomatoes website to access, share and profit from site visitors’ private data without their consent.

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The 70-page lawsuit contends that Fandango—the sole operator and developer of movie review website RottenTomatoes.com—has deployed a handful of web-tracking tools made by Microsoft, OpenX and PubMatic to secretly collect personal data, unbeknownst to site visitors, in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act. Specifically, the case argues that the purported trackers collectively constitute “pen register” devices, whose main function is to decode outgoing signaling information, and which are considered illegal under the California Penal Code if operating without user consent or a court order.

The case claims that the detailed user data collected by these trackers includes IP addresses and specific “device metadata.” This intel, the case continues, is combined with data from a number of sources all across the internet by data brokers—like OpenX and PubMatic—to establish user profiles containing “as much personal and demographic information as possible.”

This practice, known as “cookie syncing,” leaves the personal data of Rotten Tomatoes site visitors accessible to a number of undisclosed entities as the third-party trackers curate distinct, highly personalized accounts that become increasingly valuable as more detailed information is acquired, the lawsuit relays.

Once collected and collated by data brokers, user information is sold off in instantaneous auctions to the highest bidder—i.e., advertising companies that in turn promote highly specific, targeted ads based on the acquired data, the suit alleges.

Essentially, the case argues that Microsoft, with the shared reserve of user information, “facilitates the selling of Defendant’s Website users to interested advertisers, who will bid to show those users advertisements targeted to their identity and location through its ADNXS Tracker.”

The real-time bidding process, the complaint continues, is a highly successful and profitable way for developers to monetize their websites, and the defendant’s use of trackers to secretly glean user data results in the assembly of extremely targeted ads to visitors of RottenTomatoes.com right under their noses, the suit alleges.

“All of this enriches Defendant through advertising revenue, makes the Third Parties’ services (i.e., their Trackers) more valuable to Defendant and other customers, and strips Plaintiff and Class Members of their anonymity and privacy in the process,” the suit states.

The Fandango class action lawsuit seeks to represent all California residents who accessed RottenTomatoes.com while in California and had their IP addresses collected by the embedded third-party trackers.

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