Lee Enterprises Shared Subscribers' Personal Information With Facebook
| Lee Enterprises Shared Subscribers' Personal Information With Facebook | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | Lee Enterprises Shared Subscribers' Personal Information With Facebook |
| Location | Iowa, United States |
| Date | December 22, 2022 |
| Solove Harm | Surveillance, Appropriation |
| Information | Names, Addresses |
| Threat Actors | Lee Enterprises |
| Individuals | |
| Affected | Lee Enterprises' Subscribers |
| High Risk Groups | |
| Tangible Harms | Lack of Consent |
Lee Enterprises collected subscribers' information using trackers on its website and shared that information with Facebook.
Description
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Lee Enterprises for collecting their subscribers’ personal information using trackers on their website without consentSurveillance. This information was collected using Facebook-provided web tools so that videos from Facebook could be played directly on the website. To make this possible, subscribers’ personal information had to be sent to FacebookAppropriation. This data included the Facebook ID number as well as information about the video being loaded. While this information on its own is not uniquely identifiable, the Plaintiffs argue that Facebook could easily aggregate this information with its own database to identify the individual.
Since the privacy violation was the result of trying to access a video, the Plaintiffs argue that Lee Enterprises is in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act. The Law prohibits video providers from sharing, without consumers’ consent, any personally identifiable information that is tied to a customer’s viewing of specific, pre-recorded audio-video material. Originally written in reference to pre-recorded video cassette tapes and other audio-visual materials, the law was expanded in 2012 to include internet streaming services. The Plaintiffs are arguing that since Lee Enterprises was delivering "pre-recorded audio-visual materials", they must follow the Video Privacy Protection Act and obtain subscribers’ consent before loading videos that require personal information.
The Plaintiffs are asking for a temporary injunction requiring Lee to immediately remove tracking tools from the company’s websites, as well as $2,500 for each class action member plus legal fees. In total, the class action lawsuit has a dollar amount exceeding $5 million.