p2pnet - rss feed: Did Blockbuster, Beacon, break video privacy law?
p2pnet news | Freedom:- “The Facebook Beacon story has been igniting privacy debates for a while, and has caused the company some serious embarrassment,” says The Laboratorium.
But, “I think it could cause them much worse.”
Oh? Yes, says the post, continuing:
Another member of a professorial mailing list I’m on asked whether Facebook may have violated the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. Nicknamed the ‘Bork Bill’ (a newspaper published his video rental records during his confirmation hearings), the VPPA protects your privacy in the videos you rent and buy. Well, guess what? One of Facebook’s Beacon partners was Blockbuster, so some of the items that wound up in people’s news feeds were the names of videos they’d bought. Oops.
There’s a lot more detail in the post but, “Did Facebook and Beacon partner Blockbuster violate a 1988 video privacy protection law when movie choices that Facebook members made on the latter’s Web site were made available to other members of the social network?”
Yes, says James Grimmelmann, associate professor at the New York Law School unequivocally.
“The case against Blockbuster is quite straightforward,” he says in Computerworld, going on, “I’m surprised that there haven’t been lawsuits already in terms of Blockbuster.”
And Facebook?
It calls for, “a couple more steps,” the story has Grimmelmann saying. It’s one of those interesting issues, “that can be viewed in multiple ways legally”.
It’s less clear what, if any, culpability Facebook might have, he says, according to Computerworld, which adds:
“Under tort law, it could be argued that this was a joint enterprise and since Blockbuster is liable, Facebook is, too, Grimmelmann said. Even so, Facebook has a ‘much better argument’ than Blockbuster, he said.
“Blockbuster did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Grimmelmann’s assertions. A spokesman for Facebook said the company ‘does not have a comment here’.”
Also See:
The Laboratorium - Facebook and the VPPA: Uh-Oh, December 10, 2007
Computerworld - Did Blockbuster, Facebook break video privacy law with Beacon?, December 10, 2007
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