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Woman Sues Blockbuster for Facebook Privacy Violations

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the looking-for-a-quick-buck dept.

Chris Blanc writes "A Texas woman has sued Blockbuster over its activities relating to Facebook's Beacon tool. The movie rental service has been reporting user activity to Facebook since Beacon launched last November, which the plaintiff says is a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act."

7 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Blockbuster makes you waive that by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    Blockbuster's user agreement includes a wavier of your rights under the Video Privacy Protection Act. That's why I don't shop there.

    1. Re:Blockbuster makes you waive that by ark1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just beacause it is in the contract does not mean it is legal.

    2. Re:Blockbuster makes you waive that by TheRedSeven · · Score: 5, Informative
      Parent is not correct, at least according to the website:

      From the privacy policy

      Legal Notices--Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. Blockbuster supports the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 and will use reasonable commercial efforts to require employee and business partner compliance with the Act.
      Now, that's pretty vague, but if you take it at face value (HAH!), it would imply that they don't have you waive your rights under this law.

      However, they do have some pretty crappy privacy when it comes to any comments you post to their website (ratings and such): From the TOS:

      Content submitted to blockbuster.com (including your name) will not be confidential and may be published or disclosed in Blockbuster's sole discretion, without any compensation to you.

      By submitting Content, you grant Blockbuster the right to use your submitted name in connection with your Content.
      I may just be going back to Netflix...
  2. From Blockbuster's TOS by TheRedSeven · · Score: 4, Informative
    Parent is not correct, at least according to the website:

    From the privacy policy

    Legal Notices Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. Blockbuster supports the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 and will use reasonable commercial efforts to require employee and business partner compliance with the Act.
    Now, that's pretty vague, but if you take it at face value (HAH!), it would imply that they don't have you waive your rights under this law.

    However, they do have some pretty crappy privacy when it comes to any comments you post to their website (ratings and such): From the TOS :

    Content submitted to blockbuster.com (including your name) will not be confidential and may be published or disclosed in Blockbuster's sole discretion, without any compensation to you. Blockbuster may, but is not obligated to, respond to any Content.

    By submitting Content, you grant Blockbuster the right to use your submitted name in connection with your Content.
  3. Re:How does beacon know who you are? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you are signed in to your Facebook account, Beacon is running. If you then go to Blockbuster to do anything on their site, Beacon associates your FB account (the specific Abrahamo Lincolni that is you, and none of the other 39 Abe's on FB) with your Blockbuster account, and reports that association to Blockbuster.

    If you didn't log out of FB before closing that tab, Beacon is (I'm pretty sure) still running, and will still do the same thing when you log into Blockbuster or any other Beacon merchant.

    Anyone up for a boycott of all merchants who use Beacon?

  4. Re:How does beacon know who you are? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's how:

    Beacon is a cookie.

    You log in to Facebook, cookie is placed. You later log out of Facebook, do other stuff on your computer.

    Then, you log into Blockbuster.
    Beacon stores info about what you do in your Blockbuster account (e.g., rented [movie]).

    The next time you log into Facebook, Beacon tells Facebook the information it's stored.

    And that's how it knows; no special input needed on the user's part.

  5. Re:More problems...if you want them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I am astonished how otherwise intelligent people never stop to think how easy it is to "anonymize" their Facebook accounts but still have their close friends recognize them. For example, when creating an account:

    * Use a nickname instead of your real name.
    * Use a disposable email account.
    * Don't bother filling out info like, phone numbers, home address, gender, relationship details.
    * Don't fill out any other sensitive info, or use fake, or humorous data only your friends would understand.
    * Make use of FB's extensive privacy settings to lock out access to non-approved friends.
    * Turn off FB's "social ads" feature.
    * Use Firefox with Ad Blocker Plus enabled.
    * Block suspicious or undesirable apps.

    You can still enjoy these social web sites without advertisers or employers getting any useful, real information on you.