By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
A U.S. federal judge dismissed a $5 million class-action lawsuit against Google and Viacom over tracking the Internet activity of children.
The plaintiffs argued that the media giants tracked visitors to the Nickelodeon website, including children under the age of 13, in order to better target advertising.
The case caused ripples in this age of Big Data since litigation began in 2012, with many critics angry that parental consent was never asked for by the companies.
The lawsuit, brought on behalf of young children registered on Nick.com who visited the site to play games and watch videos, charged that Google and Viacom violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, or VPPA, – a law prohibiting the non-consensual disclosure of "personally identifiable information." Attorneys also argued that the companies violated certain New Jersey statutes focused against computer hacking and privacy intrusion.
Lawyers argued that the companies downloaded “cookies” – text files used to track browser history – onto the unknowing children’s computers. The cookies then tracked the children’s Internet use, data it could sell to advertisers.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler in Newark, New Jersey, could not find that the companies were able to identify the specific children interacting with specific content, as opposed to identifying children in general.
"Children do indeed warrant special attention and heightened protections under our laws and social norms," Chesler wrote in his opinion, adding that “although plaintiffs have identified conduct that may be worthy of further legislative and executive attention, they have not cited any existing and applicable legal authority."
Last July, Chesler dismissed other charges in the case and told the plaintiffs that the case cannot be amended.
The Video Privacy Protection Act, first adopted in 1988, has become notoriously clunky with the advent of the Web. While media companies have faced a slew of claims based on violations of the Act, most of the efforts have proven futile.
