US Supreme Court to hear dispute over video data privacy — The Hill

The US Supreme Court will hear a case on Wednesday concerning the scope of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). The justices must determine whether the law protects all consumers who subscribe to any of a company’s products or only subscribers to its audiovisual services, The Hill reports.

Lawsuit against Paramount

The case was brought in 2022 by Michael Salazar, a subscriber to the newsletter of 247Sports.com, a website covering college sports and athlete recruiting. He filed a class-action lawsuit against Paramount Global.

Salazar alleges that the company installed a Facebook tracking pixel on the website, which transmitted data without his consent, including his video viewing history. He claims that this information was used for targeted advertising.

The VPPA provides for liability for a video service provider that knowingly discloses personally identifiable information about a consumer without that consumer’s written consent. The law was passed after information about the video rental history of Robert Bork, whose nomination to the US Supreme Court was not confirmed, was leaked to the press.

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Different interpretations of the term consumer

The key question is whether Salazar meets the law’s definition of a “consumer.” The VPPA includes in this category a renter, purchaser, or subscriber to goods or services from a video service provider. Salazar insists that his newsletter subscription is sufficient, while Paramount believes this definition should be interpreted narrowly.

A federal court in Tennessee dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that a newsletter subscription does not make Salazar a consumer under the VPPA because it is not audiovisual material. A divided panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld that decision.

Salazar appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, asking it to resolve differences in appellate courts’ approaches to interpreting the law. Paramount representatives warned that the plaintiff’s position could lead to a significant number of lawsuits. A decision in the case is expected by next summer.