• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 25, 2024

Amazon is urging a federal judge to throw out “mudslinging” claims that it violates Prime Video users' privacy by allegedly sharing information about their online video viewing with other Amazon-affiliated companies, and with outside businesses.

The lawsuit “deploys sweeping statements about privacy rights and misleading excerpts of Amazon’s terms as a smokescreen to conceal the absence of any specific allegations,” the company writes in a motion filed with U.S. District Court Judge James Robart in the Western District of Washington.

“Plaintiffs attempt to mask these shortcomings through general mudslinging and grand pronouncements about the importance of privacy laws,” Amazon writes, adding that the allegations are “superficial and irrelevant.”

Amazon's motion comes in response to a class-action complaint brought in March by Prime Video users who allege that the company shares data about people's online video viewing with other Amazon-affiliated companies, and with outside businesses. The complaint, originally brought by Virginia resident Meredith Beagle and Louisiana resident Jordan Guerrero, was later joined by other Prime Video users.

They claimed Amazon was violating laws in California and Washington as well as the federal Video Privacy Protection Act -- a 1988 statute that prohibits video rental companies from sharing identifiable information about people's video-viewing history without their consent. Congress passed the law after a Washington, D.C. newspaper obtained Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental history from a local store. 

Among other allegations in the complaint, the plaintiffs said Amazon.com provided its parent company, Amazon Inc., with “access” to data such as titles of videos watched, billing addresses and location data.

Amazon is seeking dismissal of the lawsuit at an early stage for several reasons. Among others, the company says the allegations that it allowed “access” to data, even if proven true, wouldn't show that Amazon.com actually disclosed personally identifiable information.

What's more, Amazon says, even if the Prime Users “had alleged an actual disclosure” of their data, intra-corporate disclosures are permitted by the video privacy law.

The company also says the allegations that it shared video-viewing information with third parties are too general to warrant further proceedings.

“Nowhere in plaintiffs’ complaint do they allege that Amazon.com Services disclosed their particular [personally identifiable information] to any unaffiliated third party,” Amazon says.

The company adds that the type of data allegedly disclosed isn't personally identifiable because it would not allow an “ordinary person” to determine what videos were watched by particular individuals.