Class Action Lawsuit Alleges iHM Secretly Tracks Subs

Proposed class action lawsuits against iHeartMedia, Inc. and DotDash Meredith, Inc. allege that the respective owners of iHeart.com and People.com secretly share digital subscribers’ personal information with Meta Platforms (Facebook) without consent.

According to ClassActions.org the lawsuits out of Florida and New York, the defendants “knowingly” transmit users’ information to the third parties in violation of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which prohibits “video tape service providers” from sharing data on consumers’ video-viewing habits without express consent. The unauthorized disclosures to Facebook include subscribers’ unique Facebook IDs and the names and URLs of any videos they watched while on iHeart.com or People.com, the suits say.

Because of the “automatic and invisible” manner in which users’ information is transmitted, subscribers to the websites cannot “defend themselves” against the companies’ use of their sensitive data for commercial profit, the cases charge.

The complaints contend that both iHeart.com and People.com use a Facebook tracking pixel to gather and share subscribers’ information with the social media giant. The Facebook tracking pixel—a coded tool that advertisers can embed into their websites to collect personal information and trace user activity—documents when a visitor enters iHeart.com or People.com and records what video content is viewed, the filings say. The details of the viewed content and the subscriber’s Facebook ID are then reported back to Facebook via the tracking pixel, the lawsuits claim.

Importantly, a Facebook ID can be used to identify a specific Facebook profile and see any public information that appears on the user’s personal page, the suits relay.