Newsweek class action claims company shares subscriber data with Facebook

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Newsweek class action overview: 

• Who: A Newsweek subscriber is suing the media company.
• Why: The plaintiff says the company illegally shares its subscribers’ viewing information to Facebook, along with their identities, without their consent.
• Where: The Newsweek class action was filed in a New York federal court.

Media company Newsweek illegally shares its subscribers’ personal information and viewing history with Facebook without their consent, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Emma Mendoza filed the class action lawsuit against Newsweek Digital LLC on Jan. 25 in a New York federal court, alleging violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). 

According to the lawsuit, Newsweek, the owner of newsweek.com, violated the VPPA by disclosing its digital subscribers’ personal viewing information to Facebook without obtaining proper consent.

Mendoza, a newsweek.com subscriber and Facebook user, says the company gathered and shared its subscribers’ personally identifiable information, including a record of every video clip viewed on its site, to Facebook without their consent.

The VPPA prohibits “video tape service providers,” such as newsweek.com from knowingly disclosing consumers’ personally identifiable information, including videos watched on a platform, without first obtaining express consent in a stand-alone consent form, she says. 

However, Newsweek allegedly “chose to disregard Plaintiff’s and hundreds of thousands of other newsweek.com digital subscribers’ statutorily protected privacy rights by releasing their sensitive personal data to Facebook,” the Newsweek class action alleges.

Newsweek embeds Facebook pixel to share data with the social media company, lawsuit alleges

Newsweek installed a piece of code called the “Facebook pixel” to its newsweek.com website, allowing it to collect users’ data, the lawsuit alleges. 

The website then tracks and discloses to Facebook the digital subscribers’ viewed video media along with information that allows Facebook to identify their account on its platform. 

“Defendant uses the Personal Viewing Information to build more targeted advertising on its website which, in turn, generates greater revenue,” the Newsweek class action states. “Thus, without obtaining consent from its digital subscribers, Defendant profits from its unauthorized disclosure of its digital subscribers’ Personal Viewing Information to Facebook.”

Mendoza is looking to represent a nationwide class of Newsweek subscribers who have Facebook accounts, watched videos on the newsweek.com website and had their information shared with Facebook without their consent. 

She seeks damages of $2,500 for each violation of the law, an injunction, certification of the class action, fees, costs and a jury trial. 

Meanwhile, streaming service AMC+ has been hit with a class action lawsuit by subscribers who allege the company secretly shared their personal information and viewing history with Facebook so the social media company could serve them targeted ads.

What do you think of the Newsweek class action? Let us know in the comments. 

Mendoza is represented by Andrew J. Shamis and Edwin E. Elliott of Shamis & Gentile PA and Adam A. Schwartzbaum of Edelsberg Law. 

The Newsweek class action lawsuit is Emma Mendoza, et al. v. Newsweek Digital LLC, Case No. 1:23-cv-00643, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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