NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers can claim an early victory in one of the many proposed class action lawsuits over the collection of website visitors' information through the Facebook Pixel.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein, of the U.S. Southern District of New York, on Nov. 17 rejected a motion to dismiss filed by the media outlet The Epoch Times, which is one of many companies using the pixel to gather information to send to Facebook when visitors view video content.
Class action lawyers are claiming this violates the Video Privacy Protection Act. Attorneys from Lieff Cabraser in New York and Carney Bates & Pulliam in Arkansas are pursuing the Epoch case.
The firm Lewis Brisbois, representing Epoch, said the company didn't disclose any personally identifiable information to Facebook because the pixel is placed in a user's browser by Facebook and sends information from the browser to Facebook.
"As alleged in the complaint, the pixel was installed by Defendant on Defendant's website," Hellerstein wrote. "It is therefore inaccurate for Defendant to claim that the transmission of information occurs 'independent of any action by Epoch.'
"By installing the pixel, Defendant opened a digital door and invited Facebook to enter that door and extract information from within."
The VPPA prohibits video service providers from disclosing personally identifiable information to other parties. That information, in these cases, includes whether users initiate purchases, what they view and their Facebook IDs.
The plaintiffs sufficiently alleged the VPPA applies to the video content on The Epoch Times, Hellerstein ruled.