HBO Sued for Sharing User Data with Facebook

By Mara Anton

Posted on March 9, 2022

HBO is being sued for sharing user data to no one else than “big, bad wolf” Facebook, now part of Meta.

The media giant was hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly giving Facebook their subscribers’ viewing history.

The suit states this made possible for Facebook to match HBO’s viewing profiles with their database and make connections that allowed them to serve proper ads.

To note, HBO is a big Facebook advertiser so this accusation doesn’t seem very far-fetched. The company hopes to show they have been transparent by disclosing the use of cookies to users.

However, the suit invokes a 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) that says cookies aren’t enough – express consent should have been required by HBO before sharing this type of data.

“A standard privacy policy will not suffice,” according to the suit.

It’s not clear how much does HBO stand to lose if they’re found guilty but previous cases are an indication. For example, TikTok had to settle and pay $92 million for violating the VPPA so no matter how you look at it, if HBO loses, that is gonna cause a dent.

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