Plaintiffs Seek Expansion Of Video Privacy Laws

Keywords: personally identifiable information, PII, cookie tracing, video privacy protection, VPPA

Plaintiffs traditionally face an uphill battle in class actions alleging misuse of personally identifiable information (PII) gathered from Internet cookie tracking (i.e., data transferred between users' web browsers and companies' web sites). Courts often take the view that plaintiffs lack cognizable injury—and thus standing—as browsing history and demographic information have little to no intrinsic value.¹ However, the plaintiff's bar is ever on the lookout for new PII hooks, and recent efforts have centered on the Video Privacy Protection Act, 18 USC § 2710 (VPPA).

Congress enacted the VPPA in 1988 after Judge Robert Bork's video rental history famously leaked during his candidacy for nomination to Supreme Court. The VPPA prohibits "video tape service providers" from knowingly disclosing PII, which includes any information that links a customer to particular