• by Wendy Davis , 6 hours ago

Paramount Skydance and its streaming service Pluto TV are urging a federal judge to throw out a privacy lawsuit by parents of young children who allege that the companies wrongly shared children's video-viewing information with Google and Microsoft.

U.S. District Court Judge Kenly Kiya Kato in the Central District of California previously dismissed an earlier version of the suit, ruling that even if the allegations regarding data sharing were true, the parents failed to "present any evidence that the disclosure of their platform activity caused embarrassment, was invasive, or that the videos they watched were at all 'private.'"

At the time, she said the parents could reformulate their allegations and bring them again.

They did so in May, reiterating their claims that Paramount violated various privacy laws including the federal Video Privacy Protection Act -- which prohibits video companies from sharing users' personally identifiable viewing history with other parties.

Paramount is now asking Kato to throw out the case for good.

The company argues in papers filed Friday that the amended complaint still lacks the types of facts that, if true, would establish that the children were injured.

For instance, the amended complaint includes allegations by one parent, Raquel Diaz, that Pluto TV served her child with ads for "toys and movies," and that her child then requested those toys and movies.

But Paramount says in its new papers that this new allegation is "irrelevant" to the privacy claims at the center of the lawsuit.

The company also calls Kato's attention to a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which last year dismissed a privacy lawsuit against Microsoft over "session replay" technology -- which can capture users' interactions with websites. The appellate court said in the matter that the plaintiff in the case, Pennsylvania resident Ashley Popa, failed to show that she was harmed by the alleged tracking.

"Popa identifies no embarrassing, invasive, or otherwise private information collected by Clarity," U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff wrote, referring to Microsoft's analytics service.

"Because she has not alleged that defendants engaged in conduct that invaded historically protected privacy interests, she has not alleged an injury in fact that is sufficient to confer ... standing," Rakoff wrote.

Counsel for the plaintiffs is urging Kato to allow the lawsuit to proceed. Among other arguments, counsel contended in papers filed last month that numerous judges have allowed people to move forward with claims that companies violate the federal video privacy law by disclosing video-viewing information.

Kato is expected to hold a hearing in the case on September 10.