A lawsuit alleges that another streaming service has been giving viewer information to social media sites without consent. This time, it’s ESPN+ and ESPN.com being accused of violating the privacy rights of users.
This case is very similar to a class action lawsuit against Sling TV. The documents for that lawsuit said “Put simply, the information that Defendant shares with Facebook reveals each and every video a particular digital subscriber has requested or viewed.”
It’s now being claimed that ESPN tracked and disclosed personally identifiable information of users who watched videos on ESPN+ and ESPN.com while logged into a Facebook account, without users knowing and consenting.
A law firm is representing users who want the claim to be investigated and potentially be compensated. Here’s a statement from that firm’s website:
“We allege that ESPN+ is violating the privacy rights of its subscribers who watch video content through the ESPN+ and ESPN.com websites by disclosing their personally identifiable information, including the videos they watch, to third parties without obtaining separate consent. We allege that this combination of information can be used to identify individual subscribers and their entire viewing history. We are representing clients in individual arbitration claims against ESPN+ for violating the Video Privacy Protection Act, which awards damages of up to $2,500 per violation, as well as additional state consumer protection and privacy laws.”
Law firm Labaton Keller Sucharow has a website for ESPN and ESPN+ subscribers to see if they might be eligible for compensation.