"Class Action Lawsuit Alleges NBC Illegally Profits from Golf Channel Viewer Data"

Plaintiff Justin Breault claims that NBCUniversal has been selling subscriber information to third parties is troubling given Golf Channel, Golfpass and Golf Now’s business.

The case was filed in a Massachusetts federal court and “accuses NBCUniversal’s Golf Channel of selling viewers’ personal information and viewing history without their permission.”

The information allegedly being rented or sold includes customers’ names and addresses, as well as “detailed transactional information” about the titles and subject matter of the media purchased by subscribers. 

Once the data is disclosed, the third-party recipients of the information can add other personal and demographic data for those customers, then re-sell the personal viewing information to other third-parties, the class action lawsuit says.

While not specified, presumably Breault was a Golfpass subscriber, or, before that, a Revolution Golf customer (a service purchased by Golf Channel and later folded).

Breault says he purchased a Golf Channel “subscription-based video good or service” within the past two years, and he was never notified, in writing or otherwise, that his personal or viewing information would be disclosed to third-parties.

However, Breault claims, NBCUniversal disclosed his personal information, “including, inter alia, Plaintiff’s name, postal address, telephone number, gender, age, income, whether he has children, and his homeowner status, as well as the title of the video service/product Plaintiff purchased” to marketing companies, data appenders and aggregators or other third-parties.

I’ve asked Golf Channel for comment and will amend this post to reflect any statement when received.

Back in June, a lawsuit was filed against Golf Channel, NBC and Rory McIlroy over the use of Golfpass, a trademarked service.

GolfClub’s GOLFPASS, which is a United States Golf Association official golf club that partners with local golf courses and allows customers to book tee times through a mobile application, alleges that the group of defendants misappropriated its business name when they launched their own version of Golfpass in February of 2019 in violation of the Lanham Act and monopolized the market for digital tee time booking in violation of the Sherman Act and Clayton Act. Court documents filed by GolfClub and its CEO, Christopher Silano, allege that McIlroy, who is described as a "Founding Partner" of Golfpass, and the defendants knowingly took the name GOLFPASS despite GolfClub first using it and establishing trademark rights.

Court papers further allege that as soon as Rory McIlroy and NBC launched their platform, consumers and potential partners immediately began confusing the two platforms to GolfClub’s detriment, and that Silano regularly started receiving a barrage of emails from customers complaining about the McIlroy/NBC service and app.

In news related to Golf Channel’s Orlando facility where most employees have been laid off and closure is coming this fall, Monivette Cordeiro reports for the Orlando Sentinel on channel employees suing Lockheed Martin over mismanagement of toxins that workers allege contaminated them. There are reports of multiple sclerosis, brain lesions, cancer and other diseases caused by the dumping of toxins into the ground water.

For decades, Lockheed Martin manufactured heavy weaponry at its facilities, generating “dangerous wastes,” including different types of metal sludge, oils and greases, metal cuttings and scraps, cyanide and spent acid solutions, the lawsuit said.

Instead of carefully managing the waste, attorneys alleged Lockheed Martin stored toxins in leaking storage tanks, collected and transported waste in leaking underground piping systems and dumped tons of toxic waste sludge inside trenches dug at the Orlando facility.

“Lockheed Martin’s stunning indifference to environmental protection and human health resulted in staggering levels of contamination at the Orlando [facility],” the lawsuit said.

Regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit certain chemical contaminants in drinking water to 5 parts per billion (ppb) with a goal of having zero. The lawsuit alleges two contaminants were detected in groundwater underneath the Lockheed Martin facility in concentrations as high as 386,000 ppb and 213,600 ppb.

Eleven Golf Channel employees who worked at the facility from 1994 to 2020 are named in the suit.