NBC, CNBC, Peacock TV App Subscribers’ Personal Data Illegally Shared With Third Parties, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action claims NBCUniversal Media and subsidiary Peacock TV have unlawfully shared with third parties the personal data of subscribers to certain NBC apps.

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The 35-page lawsuit says that the media giant and its streaming service “intentionally” transmit to third parties users’ private information and video-viewing histories through numerous video streaming and news apps owned by NBCUniversal, including the Peacock TV, CNBC News, NBC News and NBC Sports apps. The suit alleges that by doing so, the defendants have violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which prohibits a “video tape service provider” from knowingly disclosing consumers’ personal data without consent.

The case claims that the defendants have “surreptitiously” captured and shared subscriber data through third-party software development kits (SDKs) integrated into the apps. The SDKs, which are software tools that can be used to collect analytics data, automatically intercept a user’s information, including their device name, GPS location, email address and other user or account identifiers, the complaint relays. Per the filing, the analytics tools also capture the IDs and titles of any videos a subscriber watches.

By disclosing a consumer’s video-viewing history along with their personal data, the defendants provide third parties such as Adobe and customer data platform mParticle enough information to link an individual to their online behavior and preferences, the lawsuit contends.

According to the suit, NBCUniversal and Peacock TV never obtained informed, written consent to share subscribers’ data with third parties, in direct violation of the VPPA and state privacy law.

“[The defendants’] conduct inflicted exactly the type of harm on [the plaintiffs] and class members that the VPPA and the [New York Video Consumer Privacy Act] were designed to prevent,” the case charges.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who subscribed to and viewed prerecorded video content on any of the NBC apps listed on this page using an Android or iOS device at any time since September 1, 2013.

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