Fubo Settles $3.4M Over Data Sharing, Highlighting Privacy Risks
Background: Class-Action Claims Under the VPPA
In July 2025, sports-streaming provider Fubo agreed to pay $3.4 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging it unlawfully distributed subscribers’ personally identifiable information (PII) to advertisers. Filed in December 2023 by Ne’Tosha Burdette, the complaint accused Fubo of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which prohibits disclosure of consumers’ video‐viewing history without informed, written consent.
Tracking Technologies and PII Collection
According to court filings and archived privacy policies, Fubo’s platform integrated a range of third-party software development kits (SDKs) and tracking libraries to capture granular user data:
- Google Analytics 4: Collects event-level data, such as session times, content viewed and user engagement metrics.
- Facebook Pixel & Meta SDK: Enables cross-device ad targeting based on unique device IDs and hashed user emails.
- Tealium/Segment: Acts as a customer data platform (CDP), funneling PII—IP addresses, GPS coordinates and device fingerprints—to ad networks.
- In-house tracking: Custom cookies and LocalStorage tokens that track page sequences, DVR recordings and live viewing history.
Fubo’s privacy policy at the time acknowledged collecting “precise or near-precise geolocation, device identifiers, pages viewed and content recorded,” but stated it would only share non-personally identifiable information unless users opted in. The lawsuit contended that no explicit opt-in was obtained before sharing true PII with advertisers.
Legal Frameworks and Industry Context
While the VPPA is specific to video viewing, streaming services also navigate broader regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Industry experts note that stringent consent management platforms (CMPs) and privacy-by-design architectures are becoming table stakes for any OTT provider handling EU or California subscribers.
Settlement Terms and Company Response
“We deny the allegations in the putative class lawsuit and specifically deny that we have engaged in any wrongdoing whatsoever,” Fubo said. “We have nonetheless chosen to pursue a settlement to avoid the uncertainty and expense of litigation.”
Under the agreement, any user who subscribed prior to May 29, 2025 (the date Fubo overhauled its privacy policy) may file a claim for a share of the $3.4 million pool. Claim submissions close on September 12, 2025. The settlement received preliminary court approval on May 29, 2025.
Additional Analysis: Implications for Streaming Providers
This case underscores the technical and legal complexities in real-time ad targeting. Streaming platforms must balance:
- Delivering personalized ads to maximize revenue.
- Complying with layered privacy regulations (federal, state, international).
- Implementing transparent consent management and data-minimization strategies.
Failure to segregate PII in data lakes or enforce robust access controls can lead to unintended data disclosures, exposing platforms to litigation and reputational harm.
Expert Commentary
Jane Miller, a privacy attorney at DataGuard Partners, observes: “The VPPA claim is powerful because it ties specific viewing records to identities. Streaming services should adopt pseudonymization and encrypted tokens so ad partners never see raw user identifiers.”
Dr. Alan Chu, a cybersecurity researcher at SecureStreams Labs, adds: “Technically, you can perform ad frequency capping and audience segmentation on hashed IDs or differential-privacy aggregates. There’s no need to expose cleartext PII to advertisers.”
Future Outlook and Best Practices
In response to growing regulatory scrutiny, streaming services are shifting to:
- Zero-party data models, asking users to explicitly share interests.
- Edge computing for local ad decisioning—keeping raw viewing data on the device.
- Adopting standards like Google’s Privacy Sandbox for Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) to anonymize targeting.
For subscribers, reviewing privacy settings and understanding a service’s CMP are key steps to safeguarding personal data.
Latest Developments
Fubo reported its first profitable quarter in Q1 2025 with net income of $188.5 million. Meanwhile, its planned acquisition by Disney is under Department of Justice review, following Fubo’s dropped antitrust suit against Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery over a canceled joint sports app. Resolving smaller privacy disputes may help Fubo concentrate on these larger strategic maneuvers.