A class action lawsuit accuses movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse of allegedly improperly sharing customer info with Facebook, TikTok and Google, among others, through the embedding of so-called tracking pixels on the Alamo website.
"When moviegoers visit an Alamo cinema, they are not lone stars," says the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. "Instead, they are chaperoned by a sizable number of digital marketing companies – like Meta Platforms, Inc. Alamo has installed various 'tracking pixels' on its website – ensuring that these tech companies can continue to keep a watchful eye on us after the cinema lights dim and the films begin."
The tracking information includes the titles of the movies customers purchased tickets for and the theater locations, the suit says.
" All this is done to build digital dossiers on people and retarget them for advertising with alarming accuracy," according to the suit.
Collecting the data without the customers' consent violates the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) and California civil code, the lawsuit alleges.
It seeks monetary damages plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by L. Timothy Fisher and Stefan Bogdanovich, of Bursor & Fisher P.A., of Walnut Creek.
Garza v. Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, LLC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, 3:23-cv-05719