A man has filed a class action lawsuit against Mubi, Inc., claiming the movie streaming site has violated federal privacy law by reporting user viewing habits and personal information to Meta/Facebook without their consent.
A plaintiff identified only as John Doe filed a class action lawsuit in federal court against Mubi, citing allegations of invasion of privacy in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) and violations of New York general business law.
According to court documents, the VPPA prohibits "video tape service providers," such as Mubi, from knowingly disclosing to any person the personally identifiable information (PII) of their customers.
Doe states that in March 2022, he created a Mubi account, which qualifies him as a "consumer" and "subscriber "under the VPPA. He states that he has watched videos on the platform regularly since the date of his subscription.
The lawsuit highlights Mubi's use of the Meta Tracking Pixel, a piece of code that advertisers, such as the defendant, can embed into their website to track the actions of users and send records of them to Meta for the purpose of building profiles of users to better target marketing and advertising. The lawsuit states that these various tracking technologies allow for the widespread collection and transfer of user information without the users' knowledge or consent.
Doe claims that he has a Facebook account and generally stays logged onto his Facebook account when accessing the Mubi streaming platform. The complaint alleges that when users watch videos on Mubi while logged into Facebook, their browsers transmit identifying "computer cookies" to Meta which contains the user's unencrypted Facebook ID. The complaint further claims that the Meta Tracking Pixel transmits additional cookies to Meta, including an encrypted Facebook ID and browser identifier. These cookies allow Meta to link a user's MUBI activity to their Facebook profile, enabling targeted advertising based on the user's video viewing behavior.
The complaint argues that Mubi violates the VPPA by collecting and transmitting users' identifying information to Meta/Facebook without obtaining their consent. The complaint goes on to emphasize the lack of adequate disclosure in Mubi's Privacy Policy and the absence of an option for subscribers to opt out of data sharing.
Doe is requesting a jury trial to seek monetary damages, plus interest, court costs, attorney fees, and other relief. He is represented in the case by attorneys Stefan Bogdanovich and Neal J. Deckant, of the firm of Bursor & Fisher, in Walnut Creek.
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, case number 5:23-cv-05509