Lawsuit Claims Univision Secretly Disclosed Web Visitors’ Video Choices to Third Parties

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A proposed class action alleges Spanish media conglomerate Univision has secretly disclosed TV.Univision.com visitors’ personally identifiable information, including a record of every video a user has watched, to Google, DoubleClick and other web-tracking third parties. 

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The 20-page online privacy lawsuit accuses Univision of violating the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in its use of various third-party tracking tools to gain information on its user base and improve its marketing and advertising capabilities. Per the suit, TV.Univision.com attracts roughly 20 million unique visitors each month, making it the most visited Spanish-language TV and streaming platform among Hispanic people in the United States. 

In particular, the case says Univision has integrated into its website Google’s Analytics and DoubleClick application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as user identification software developed by Innovid.  

“An inspection of Defendant’s Website reveals that Defendant transmits information sufficient to permit these third parties, and any ordinary person who works for those third parties, to identify a specific person’s video-viewing behavior,” the filing claims. 

According to the lawsuit, the VPPA prohibits any “video tape service provider” such as Univision from knowingly disclosing personally identifiable information concerning any consumer of the provider. This information includes that which identifies a person as having requested or obtained specific video materials or services, the filing says. 

Specifically, when a user views a video on Univision’s website, the company discloses to Innovid and Google their TV provider, precise geolocation, unique Google and Innovid IDs and the video ID and category for what they watched, the lawsuit shares. 

“At no point did Plaintiff or the Class members consent to Defendant’s disclosure of their video viewing history to third parties,” the filing claims, alleging TV.Univision.com users have been deprived of their privacy rights and control over their personal information. 

The case looks to cover all persons in the United States who, during the maximum period of time allowed by law, logged into TV.Univision.com and viewed prerecorded content using their mobile or computer browsers. 

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