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Years After ProPublica Exposed Vizio For Spying On Users, Lawyers Will Make Millions From Lawsuit (hollywoodreporter.com)
After it was revealed that Vizio was tracking customers' viewing habits and sharing that data with advertisers, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company. Now, Ars Technica is reporting that "lawyers representing Vizio TV owners have asked a federal judge in Orange County, California to sign off on [the settlement] with the company for $17 million, for an affected class of 16 million people, who must opt-in to get any money." The company "also agrees to delete all data that it collected." From the report: Notice of the lawsuit will be shown directly on the Vizio Smart TVs, three separate times, as well as through paper mailings. When it's all said and done, new court filings submitted on Thursday say each of those 16 million people will get a payout of somewhere between $13 and $31. By contrast, their lawyers will collectively earn a maximum payout of $5.6 million in fees.
Eventually, the company agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission. However, this new settlement is related to an entirely separate lawsuit, one that was consolidated in federal court in southern California. This $17 million amount is more than Vizio made by licensing the data collected, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
Eventually, the company agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission. However, this new settlement is related to an entirely separate lawsuit, one that was consolidated in federal court in southern California. This $17 million amount is more than Vizio made by licensing the data collected, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
This $17 million amount is more than Vizio made by licensing the data collected, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
That's the important part. For these sorts of things to have any impact on corporations the punishment must be more than the profit from doing it.
No money was created here, money was simply transferred from purchasers of TVs to lawyers.
I was given a Vizio TV. So, yesterday I decided to install the remote control program.
THE PROGRAM WILL NOT FUNCTION UNLESS YOU ENABLE GPS LOCATION.
The excuse was so that it could locate devices and WiFi networks near you. I want it to work on exactly one TV on exactly one network. I did no provide permission, uninstalled the app, gave it a one star on the Play Store and ranted about why. I'm not the first to rant about that after a glance through.
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How did the purchasers manage to retain rights to money that they voluntarily handed over to retailers, and the retailers voluntarily handed over to Vizio (generously assuming that there were no additional middlemen), exactly?
They didn't.
What money, time, or modicum of effort did purchasers invest in pursuing Vizio?
None.
Of course, you're free to opt out of the class action settlement and pursue your own claim(s). You're going to do that, right?
Nope.
For me, personally, I don't see the big deal in what they did. I pretty much assume anything "smart" is tracking me and selling that data to someone. I've found their TVs to be great quality for the price, the software is reliable and consistent (looking squarely at you, Samsung, and your 20,000 different software iterations). They also keep the software up to date.
I have 5 of their smart TVs in my house. When I bought them, they came with an Android tablet, which was pretty much the only way to control the TVs at the time. My kids absolutely love those tablets. My youngest casts from the tablet to the TV, then plays games on the tablet while she watches the TV.
Vizio then released a new update to the TVs. Via a software update. they made it possible to use a standalone remote to watch Netflix, Amazon (which doesn't support ChromeCast so this was actually a net-new feature for these TVs), Hulu, etc. You needed a new remote to access these features though because the original basically had 6 buttons: power, input, channel +/-, volume +/-, and that's it. Obvious way to make a couple of bucks by selling said new remotes, right? Nope. Even though the TVs were each almost 2 years old and clearly out of warranty, Vizio generated a code per-TV that allowed you to request a free remote per-TV. Not "free plus stupid amount for shipping and handling", free as in I got 5 new remotes for the grand total of $0.00. It took about a week from when I requested the remotes to when they arrived.
Long story short, I guess I don't care if they know what I watch. Netflix knows what I watch on Netflix. Amazon knows what I watch on Amazon. Hulu knows what I watch on Hulu. YouTube knows what I watch on YouTube. I basically assume each of them are somehow selling, sharing, or using that data for ads. I just can't seem to work up the anger to be upset that Vizio was doing the same.
Yeah. I get that people don't like it when lawyers get rich off of other people's misfortune, but headlines like this seem like PR from some organization that wants to get rid of consumer class actions.
Class actions are an economical way of vindicating the rights of large classes of people—and that is why big businesses don't like them. They want the latitude of ripping people off just below the pain threshold, whether they are selling goods or buying labor.
Though arbitration is its own issue, the Federal Arbitration Act should be amended to be more consumer and employee friendly, and to prevent companies from creating click-wrap licenses that strip you of your right to a class action.
The problem is that Vizio should have been beaten to the point where no one would ever even think to do something like this again... corporate bosses and board members jailed, company liquidated, employees fired or laid off, (and then THEY can pursue relief because they were terminated, from the assets in frozen bank accounts belonging to the responsible corporate heads and majority shareholders whose misbehavior and bad decisions caused the company to get liquidated,) with the assets divided evenly between members of he injured class.
This slap on the wrists practically ensures this kind of malfeasance will happen again and again and again... etc.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
There a settlement of a lawsuit, and the lawyers collected routine fees. Since when is the lawyers getting their regular compensation the "story" or even "news"?
The story is that Vizio was spying on users and paid a settlement as a result, but one that was trivial compared to the magnitude of the violation.
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