IBM is facing a new lawsuit alleging that its Weather Company violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing users’ personal information with third-party advertising partners without their consent.
In the absence of a comprehensive federal privacy law, the lawsuit alleges that Big Blue violated the U.S. Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which was enacted in 1988 following the disclosure of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s videotape rental records. IBM was sued in 2019 by then-Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer over similar allegations that the Weather Channel mobile app collected and shared location data without disclosing it. The tech giant settled the case in 2020. A separate civil lawsuit against the Weather Channel was filed in 2020 and settled in 2023.
IBM Weather Channel Data Privacy Issues
This latest legal salvo against the Weather Channel’s alleged data collection addresses confidential information provided through the company’s website to third-party advertising partners mParticle and AppNexus/Xandr (acquired by Microsoft in 2022). The former provides customer analytics, while the latter is an advertising and marketing platform. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of California plaintiff Ed Penning, alleges that these two marketing companies obtained Penning’s name, gender, email address, precise geolocation, and the names and URLs of videos viewed by viewing videos on the Weather Channel website without his permission or knowledge.
It is explained that the plaintiff’s lawyers last year hired a private research firm to analyze browser network traffic during video sessions on the Weather Channel website. The research firm reportedly confirmed that the site provided third-party advertisers with information that could identify individuals and the videos they viewed. The VPPA prohibits video providers from sharing “personally identifiable information” about their customers without the customer’s consent. The lawsuit aims to be filed as a class action. According to the VPPA, if the lawsuit is successful, it would be awarded actual damages of $2,500 (if applicable) for each violation of the law, plus statutory damages and attorneys’ fees.
