[SGVLUG] Hulu in court over 1988 video privacy law ( Which fb and netflicks attempting to overturn )

[matti]

Hi,

Interesting, a little bit of digging came up with Facebook and Netflick's attempts to change the VPPA
( Video Privacy Protection Act )

According to The New York Times, Hulu has been hit with a lawsuit filed in a California federal court over claims that it violates the 1988 law, the Video Privacy Protection Act. The Times, which obtained the court documents, says unidentified plaintiffs have called on the law in their suit, charging Hulu with violating their privacy by allegedly sharing their viewing history with advertisers.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57493709-93/hulu-in-court-over-1988-video-privacy-law/

from the NY Times:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/hulu-faces-privacy-test-in-court/

"The plaintiffs will seek to prove in court that Hulu violated their privacy by letting third-party companies track their movements across the Internet without their consent. To do so, Hulu allowed an analytics company, KISSmetrics, to place a “cookie” or code on their computers that included names, location preferences and programs watched. That information was in turn conveyed to other companies, from advertising networks to analytics companies to Facebook. “As to Facebook, Hulu included their Facebook IDs, connecting the video content information to Facebook’s personally identifiable user registration information,” the judge wrote.
Hulu has since discontinued using KISSmetrics, after two separate academic studies reported on the practice last year.
Hulu declined to comment on whether or how it continued to share video consumption records with third parties for advertising or other purposes.

The case could have repercussions for other video streaming services. For instance, Netflix, which allows users to stream movies online, wants to team up with Facebook to allow its users to share what movies they watch with their Facebook friends. Both companies have acknowledged that the Video Privacy Protection Act presents a hurdle. Both are lobbying to overturn the law."

interesting.. epic.org has more info
http://epic.org/privacy/vppa/

and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

thanks
matti