Fubo pays $3.4M to settle claims it illegally shared user data with advertisers

Fubo has reached a settlement of $3.4 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging that the sports streaming platform improperly shared its users' personal data without consent. The lawsuit, initiated by Ne’Tosha Burdette in December 2023, sought to halt what it described as the unauthorized disclosure of customers' personally identifiable information (PII). The complaint contended that Fubo violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which prohibits the sharing of consumers' video viewing history without explicit, informed consent. It highlighted that Fubo's privacy policy at the time stated that the company collected various forms of data from users, including precise geolocation and device usage information. According to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, Fubo’s privacy policy indicated that only non-personally identifiable information would be shared with third parties unless users provided their consent. However, Burdette's lawsuit argued that the company failed to obtain consent from users when they created accounts, leading to unauthorized sharing of their PII. The complaint emphasized that by revealing the identity of users and their viewing preferences to third parties, Fubo knowingly violated the VPPA and the privacy rights of its customers.