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.
