Viacom And Google Win Important Dismissal In Online Tracking Class Action

Last week the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed, with prejudice, class action claims against Google and Viacom concerning targeted advertising and the online tracking of children through cookies. Perhaps surprisingly, the claims did not involve allegations that the parties violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The suit arose from allegations that when users register on Viacom's Nick.com website, they are asked to input their gender and birthday and create a username. Viacom collects this information and gives each user a unique internal code that reflects their gender and age. Viacom then places a cookie on each user's computer, which tracks the user's IP address, browser settings, unique device identifier, certain system and browser information, and the URLs and videos requested from Viacom's children's websites. Viacom would share with Google its unique internal code, along with the record of what parts of