HBO sued for sharing user data with Facebook without permission

Bad times for tech giants who live off data collection: HBO faces class action lawsuits for allegedly sharing its users’ data with a certain… Facebook ! The plaintiffs also criticize HBO for never having informed users of this data sharing, and necessarily for not having requested authorization to collect from these same users.

The data in question concerns the viewing history of HBO subscribers. The name list of HBO customers would also be part of the collection. Failure to ask for permission directly violates the US Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA). HBO does indicate to the subscriber that it uses cookies, but the VPPA requires obtaining separate consent to retrieve viewing data.

HBO is not the only company to violate the VPPA. Tiktok recently paid the price and got away with a $92 million financial arrangement.