• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

A federal magistrate judge in New York has recommended dismissing claims that Major League Baseball Advanced Media violated a video privacy law by allegedly disclosing information about users' video viewing activity to Meta, via its analytics code.

In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein effectively said the allegations against the sports association, even if proven true, wouldn't prove it transmitted the kind of data that would allow an "ordinary person" to identify someone's video viewing history.

Gorenstein based the opinion on decisions issued earlier this year by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which held in two cases that web companies don't violate the video privacy law by allegedly transmitting a Facebook ID -- a series of numbers tied to the user's Facebook account -- to Meta.

In the first of those appellate rulings, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit said in May that alleged transmissions by TrillerTV to Meta didn't run afoul of the federal law.

“We conclude that 'personally identifiable information' encompasses information that would allow an ordinary person to identify a consumers video-watching habits, but not information that only a sophisticated technology company could use to do so,” Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin wrote in an opinion joined by Judges William Nardini and Reena Raggi.

One month later, a different three-judge panel reiterated that ruling -- and added that it "effectively shut the door" to Video Privacy Protection Act claims based on disclosures to Meta's analytics tool.

Gorenstein noted in his opinion that since the 2nd Circuit's rulings came out, courts in New York have dismissed at least six lawsuits alleging that web companies violated the video privacy law by sending streaming video users' data to Meta via its pixel.

The recommendations have not yet been accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Woods, who presides over the litigation.