Paramount class action alleges company shares subscriber information with Facebook

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Paramount class action lawsuit overview

• Who: An Illinois resident filed a class action lawsuit against Paramount. 
• Why: The plaintiff alleges Paramount collects CBS.com subscriber data and sends it to Facebook without user permission. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.

A CBS and Facebook user filed a lawsuit against CBS’ owner, Paramount Global, for allegedly tracking and sharing subscriber data with Facebook without consumers’ consent. 

Shannon Parcell, the lead plaintiff in this class action lawsuit, alleges she found out in July 2022 that Paramount “surreptitiously collected and transmitted her personally identifiable information,”  as well as other subscribers’, on CBS.com. She seeks to represent a nationwide class that includes everyone who has Facebook and CBS.com accounts and viewed videos on CBS.com.

The Paramount class action lawsuit largely accuses the media company of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which allows consumers “control over personal information divulged and generated in exchange for receiving services from video tape service providers.” Paramount knowingly transmitted subscribers’ “personally identifiable information to unrelated third parties,” the complaint argues.

Paramount class action says Facebook confirms CBS.com tracking

Paramount employs the Facebook Tracking Pixel, “a piece of code that advertisers can integrate into their website” to collect and transmit subscriber data automatically, according to the complaint. The Facebook Tracking Pixel supposedly captures actions, or events, such as a clip or video a user watches on CBS.com and sends a record of it to Facebook, which then “processes it, analyzes it, and assimilates it into datasets like the Core Audiences and Custom Audiences.” 

Paramount can also allow Facebook to identify unique visitors through cookies, whether the CBS subscriber has a Facebook account or not, the complaint argues. Paramount also allegedly collects and sends CBS subscribers’ full name, email, zip code, birthday, and gender, all of which is collected when creating a CBS.com account.

Paramount “knows Facebook will match the [data] with a subscriber’s subsequent activity” in order to help increase its custom audience and conversions, while also decreasing the cost per conversion, the complaint alleges. 

Facebook “confirms that it matches activity on CBS.com with a user’s profile” through a user’s off-site activity which is a “summary of activity that businesses and organizations share with [Facebook] about your interactions, such as visiting their apps or websites,” according to the lawsuit.

Parcell seeks statutory and punitive damages, injunctive relief, prejudgment interest, and reasonable attorney’s costs. 

Do you use both CBS.com and Facebook? You could be a part of this nationwide class action lawsuit!

The plaintiff is represented by Gary M. Klinger and Nick Suciu III of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC and Joshua D. Arisohn, Philip L. Fraietta, and Christopher R. Reilly of Bursor & Fisher, P.A.

The Paramount Class Action Lawsuit is Parcell v. Paramount Global Corp., Case No. 1:22-cv-03666, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. 

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