ThemisBar.com Secretly Shares Users’ Data with Facebook, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action alleges that the operator of ThemisBar.com illegally tracks user information—including which video lectures they watch on the site—and secretly shares it with Facebook.

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The 17-page lawsuit claims defendant Themis Bar Review has run afoul of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), a federal law that prohibits a “video tape service provider” from disclosing personal information about consumers without their written consent.

According to the complaint, the bar exam preparation service has installed a piece of code called the Facebook pixel on ThemisBar.com to collect and transmit to the social media giant data about users as they navigate the website. The case contends that the pixel shares website visitors’ names, email addresses and the video lectures they watch.

“[The plaintiff] and class members did not provide [the defendant] with any form of consent—either written or otherwise—to disclose their [personally identifiable information] or video viewing activity to third parties,” the filing says.

The suit claims the tracking tool also reveals consumers’ Facebook IDs, which are unique identifiers that can be used to locate individual Facebook accounts. This means that the defendant’s alleged data-sharing practice allows Facebook to link consumers’ activities on ThemisBar.com with their actual identities, the complaint asserts.

Per the filing, the user information Facebook receives from Themis Bar Review is compiled into datasets that are used for targeted advertising purposes.

“Facebook can target users so effectively because it surveils user activity both on and off its site,” the case shares. “This allows Facebook to make inferences about users beyond what they explicitly disclose, like their ‘interests,’ ‘behavior,’ and ‘connections.’”

The plaintiff, a Los Angeles resident, says she enrolled in a bar preparation course on ThemisBar.com in September 2022. Without her knowledge or consent, the company shared the woman’s viewing history with Facebook through the tracking pixel on 400 occasions, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States with a Facebook account who watched a video on ThemisBar.com.

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