Sony Secretly Shares Crunchyroll Users’ Information with Facebook, Class Action Claims [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on October 10, 2023
Cuevas v. Sony Group Corporation
Filed: September 8, 2022 ◆§ 1:22-cv-04858
A class action claims Sony Group Corporation has unlawfully disclosed Crunchyroll.com users’ personal information to Facebook without consent to do so.
October 10, 2023 – Crunchyroll Privacy Lawsuit Settled for $16 Million
The proposed class action detailed on this page has been settled for $16 million.
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The deal, which received preliminary approval from United States District Judge Sara L. Ellis on September 20, 2023, covers all persons in the U.S. who were registered users of an online website, app, or any video-on-demand service or app owned, controlled and/or operated by Crunchyroll, and who viewed videos on the service at any time between September 8, 2020 and September 20, 2023. Per court documents, roughly 19.5 million people are covered by the deal.
The official settlement website can be found at https://www.crvppasettlement.com/.
To file a claim, head here and enter your unique class member ID to begin. Your class member ID can be found on the email you received about the settlement, the website states.
Claims must be filed online or postmarked by December 12, 2023. You must file a valid claim to receive a piece of the settlement. If you do nothing, you will receive no payment and be bound by the terms of the settlement.
Court documents state that class members who submit a valid claim will receive a pro rata cash payment from the $16 million settlement fund. Money in this fund will also be used to cover administration expenses and other legal costs associated with the litigation, court documents explain.
Attorneys for the class anticipate that Crunchyroll users who file a valid claim will receive roughly $30 each, though “the exact amount is not yet known and could be more or less,” the official settlement site states.
In addition to monetary payments, Crunchyroll has agreed, as part of the settlement, to implement “meaningful business practice changes” in an effort to fix its alleged Video Privacy Protection Act violations going forward. In particular, Crunchyroll will “modify its use” of the Facebook Pixel and other tracking technologies on the site such that the use of the features “will not result in Crunchyroll’s disclosure to the technology developers of the specific video content viewed by a specific individual,” court documents state.
The plaintiffs filed their motion for preliminary settlement approval with the court on September 15, 2023. The settlement was reached after months of mediation began in February of this year, court documents relay.
A final approval hearing is scheduled for December 19, 2023. If and when the deal receives final approval, and any appeals are resolved, payment from the settlement will begin to go out within 90 days to class members who filed valid claims, the website states.
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A proposed class action claims Sony Group Corporation has unlawfully disclosed Crunchyroll.com users’ personal information to Facebook without consent to do so.
According to the 20-page case, Sony has installed cookies, software development kits and pixels on the anime streaming site to track how subscribers use the service and then shares the information it collects with Facebook for advertising purposes.
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The lawsuit alleges Sony’s collection of subscribers’ personal information—including the titles of specific videos they watch on Crunchyroll and their Facebook IDs, a unique identifier that can be used to locate a person’s Facebook profile—violates the Video Privacy Protection Act. Per the case, this federal law prohibits “video tape service providers,” such as Crunchyroll, from disclosing information about the video content requested or watched by a specific individual without first obtaining the person’s written consent.
The lawsuit claims that Sony “profits handsomely” from its disclosure of subscribers’ personal information at the expense of Crunchyroll users’ privacy rights.
Sony, who purchased anime streaming service Crunchyroll in 2020, gathers information about its digital subscribers through the use of a Facebook pixel and software development kit, the filing explains. According to the case, the Facebook pixel is a piece of code embedded on a website that tracks how visitors interact with the site and reports that information to the social media platform to be used for advertising purposes.
Per the complaint, the Facebook pixel allows Sony to record and disclose to Facebook certain data about its digital subscribers, including the titles and URLs of the videos they watch on Crunchyroll and their Facebook IDs.
A Facebook ID (FID), the case says, is a unique identifier that allows any “ordinary person” to look up an individual’s Facebook profile. Because Sony shares users’ video viewing information and Facebook IDs as one data point, the information provided is enough to identify a specific user and the videos they’ve watched, the suit argues.
“Simply put, with only an FID and the video content name and URL—all of which Defendant knowingly and readily provides to Facebook without any consent from the digital subscribers—any ordinary person could learn the identity of the digital subscriber and the specific video or media content they requested on Crunchyroll.”
Per the lawsuit, Sony fails to disclose in Crunchyroll’s terms of service and privacy policy that it will share subscribers’ personal viewing information with third parties, including Facebook, and never asks for consent to share the data.
The case looks to represent anyone in the U.S. with a digital subscription to a website owned or operated by Sony who had their personal video viewing information disclosed to Facebook.
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