Pure
Fiel a Verdad
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2001
- Posts
- 15,135
Face book and Blockbuster:
Unless you opt out, having read the fine print, your movie selections at Blockbuster appear on your Facebook page.
Facebook Borks Blockbuster: Beacon Turns Into A Lawsuit (BBI)
Peter Kafka | April 17, 2008 12:13 PM
Facebook's users seem to have gotten over last year's Beacon controversy, and in retrospect it seems few of them cared in the first place. But one still does: She's suing Blockbuster (BBI) for participating in the marketing scheme, which was supposed to inform your friends when you bought something online. MediaPost:
In the lawsuit, quietly filed last week, Dallas County resident Cathryn Elaine Harris claims that Blockbuster violated the federal Videotape Privacy Protection Act by sharing information about her movie rentals and sales with Facebook without first obtaining her written consent.
Harris is seeking class-action status, and is asking for at least $2,500 for each violation of the statute, a 1988 law passed after a newspaper obtained the video rental records of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.
This was the worst-case scenario that Beacon's critics immediately thought of when the program first rolled out last fall: That you'd rent, say, "Poison Ivy: The New Seduction" and your friends would be automatically informed, without your consent.
Unless you opt out, having read the fine print, your movie selections at Blockbuster appear on your Facebook page.
Facebook Borks Blockbuster: Beacon Turns Into A Lawsuit (BBI)
Peter Kafka | April 17, 2008 12:13 PM
Facebook's users seem to have gotten over last year's Beacon controversy, and in retrospect it seems few of them cared in the first place. But one still does: She's suing Blockbuster (BBI) for participating in the marketing scheme, which was supposed to inform your friends when you bought something online. MediaPost:
In the lawsuit, quietly filed last week, Dallas County resident Cathryn Elaine Harris claims that Blockbuster violated the federal Videotape Privacy Protection Act by sharing information about her movie rentals and sales with Facebook without first obtaining her written consent.
Harris is seeking class-action status, and is asking for at least $2,500 for each violation of the statute, a 1988 law passed after a newspaper obtained the video rental records of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.
This was the worst-case scenario that Beacon's critics immediately thought of when the program first rolled out last fall: That you'd rent, say, "Poison Ivy: The New Seduction" and your friends would be automatically informed, without your consent.
