Ubisoft is facing a potential class action lawsuit for alleged illegal user data sharing.
As reported by Bloomberg Law, the class action complaint accuses the Assassin’s Creed publisher of sharing personally identifiable information (PII) with Facebook company Meta.
According to the complaint, players who use the Ubisoft website to buy a game on the Ubisoft Store or use it to subscribe to Ubisoft+ are having their PII sent to Meta through its Pixel user tracking software.
“Defendant does not disclose on the website that PII users’ personally identifying information would be captured by the Meta Platforms, Inc tracking Pixel utilised by defendant, and then transferred to Meta, thereby exposing the subscribers’ PII to any person of ordinary technical skill who received that data,” the complaint reads.
“Data sharing policies for a service or subscription is an important factor for individuals deciding whether to provide personal information to that service.”
The complaint claims that this practice is a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, which was originally introduced in 1988 to prevent video rental stores from sharing a member’s PII, because it could “specifically tie the identity of an individual” to their purchase history.
Following the growth of digital distribution, the Act was amended in 2013 to allow video rental companies, including the likes of Netflix, to share users’ PII with social network sites but only after the user consents.
The complaint against Ubisoft alleges that because Ubisoft doesn’t tell players it’s sharing their PII with Meta, it’s therefore violating the Video Privacy Protection Act, among others.
The lawsuit claims that when a user is signed into Facebook any Ubisoft Store searches, purchases or Ubisoft+ downloads they perform are sent to Facebook.
“Defendant purposefully implemented and utilized the Pixel, which tracks user activity on the Website and discloses that information to Facebook to gather valuable marketing data,” it claims.
“The Pixel cannot be placed on a website without steps taken directly by defendant or on behalf of defendant (e.g. by a website manager). The Pixel cannot be placed on the website by Facebook without the knowledge and cooperation of defendant.
“Defendant does not seek, and has not obtained, consent from PII users to utilise the Pixel to track, share, and exchange their PII with Facebook.”
The lawsuit has currently not yet received class action certification, but the plaintiffs are seeing a trial by jury and want financial compensation for everyone affected, as well as a court order instructing Ubisoft to either remove the Pixel from its website or get consent from its users before it shares their PII.
