Latest Vizio Privacy Class Action Is First To Name ‘Data Partners’ as Co-Defendants

Nine companies with which Vizio may have shared data from its Inscape viewer-tracking feature were named as co-defendants in the latest complaint (in Pacer) against the smart TV maker. Two dozen class-action suits alleging violations of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act and other offenses have been filed against Vizio since November. The so-called “data partners” that were named for the first time in the latest suit are advertising and marketing analytics firms that have collaborated with Vizio to track, receive, exchange and/or repackage the personally identifiable information of Vizio customers, alleged the April 20 complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, the same court in which the other class-action complaints against Vizio were recently “centralized” (see 1604150001). Named as co-defendants with Vizio in the April 20 complaint were Alphonso, AudienceXpress, Interpublic Group, iSpot.tv, Lotame Solutions, Tapad, TubeMogul, WPP Group USA and Xaxis. Representatives of the various defendants didn’t comment, nor has Vizio.