Equifax class action alleges company shares subscriber information with Facebook

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Equifax class action overview: 

• Who: An Equifax digital subscriber sued the company.
• Why: The plaintiff says the company illegally discloses its subscribers’ information to Facebook without their consent. 
• Where: The Equifax class action lawsuit was filed in an Illinois federal court.

Equifax Inc violated the law by disclosing its digital subscribers’ identities and watched videos to Facebook without proper consent, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Mary Guider-Shaw filed the class action lawsuit against Equifax Inc Oct. 18 in an Illinois federal court, alleging violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).

The VPPA prohibits “video tape service providers” from knowingly disclosing consumers’ personally identifiable information, including what they have viewed, without express consent in a standalone consent form, the Equifax class action says.

Equifax collects and shares subscribers’ personal information using a Facebook Pixel, the lawsuit claims. 

A Facebook Pixel is a snippet of programming code that, once installed on a webpage or mobile application, tracks users as they navigate through a website or app and sends information regarding the user’s activity to Facebook, the Equifax class action lawsuit states.

In this case, the information shared with Facebook includes the title of the video the subscriber watched and, most notably, the subscribers’ Facebook ID, the lawsuit alleges. 

“Importantly, Equifax discloses the subscriber’s ID and viewed prerecorded Video Media to Facebook together in a single transmission,” the Equifax class action claims. “This occurs even when the digital subscriber has not shared (nor consented to share) such information.”

Equifax class action claims subscribers do not consent to sharing data

Equifax subscribers do not consent to the dissemination of their viewed video data to a third party, the lawsuit says.

Guider-Shaw looks to represent anyone in the United States with a digital subscription to an online website owned or operated by Equifax who had their personal viewing information disclosed to Facebook.

She seeks certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial.

Consumers have accused several companies, including HGTV, Forbes, Paramount and Dotdash Meredith, of unlawfully sharing their subscribers’ info with Facebook. Click here to read more.

Do you subscribe to Equifax or any of its websites? Let us know your thoughts on this class action in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Ryan F. Stephan, James B. Zouras and Mohammed A. Rathur of Stephan Zouras LLP and Brandon M. Wise of Pfeiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise LLP.

The Equifax class action lawsuit is Mary Guider-Shaw v. Equifax Inc, Case No. 1:22-cv-05733, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. 

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