WSJ accused of violating video privacy law

Dow Jones & Co. has been hit with a potential class-action lawsuit accusing it of violating federal video privacy laws with the Wall Street Journal‘s Roku app.

Wendy Davis of MediaPost.com writes, “Georgia resident Terry Locklear alleges in her complaint that the news company’s app automatically transmits information about the Wall Street Journal Live clips that users view — along with the serial number of their Roku devices — to the analytics and video ad company mDialog. Locklear argues that this activity violates the Video Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits video providers from revealing consumers’ personally identifiable information without their written consent.

“‘Unbeknownst to its users … each time they view video clips or news reports, the WSJ Channel sends a record of such activities to an unrelated third-party data analytics and video advertising company called mDialog,’ she alleges in her lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. ‘The complete record is sent each time that a user views a video clip or news report, along with the serial number associated with the user’s Roku device.’

“Locklear asserts in the complaint that a Roku’s serial number is a ‘persistent identifier’ that can be matched with users’ identities to reveal ‘a wealth of extremely precise information’ about them. ‘Software applications that transmit a Roku’s serial number along with the user’s activity provide an intimate look into how the user interacts with their channels, which can reveal information such as the user’s political or religious affiliation, employment information, articles and videos viewed, and even detail about the sequence of events in which the user interacts with their Roku,’ she alleges.

“Dow Jones did not respond to a request for comment.”

Read more here.