redfin tuna and Zillo is at the center of two video privacy lawsuits filed in the United States on June 25 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
In two separate lawsuits, plaintiff Guillermo Mata alleges that real estate companies violated the Video Privacy Protection Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act by allegedly transferring consumers’ personally identifiable information, including names and email address) to third party companies, e.g. Facebook parents Yuan and Google parents letter after they watched a home tour video produced by the agents.
The lawsuit against Zillow lists “Reddit Corporation., Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”), Microsoft CorporationAlphabet Inc. and snapshot company. (Snapchat),” as the alleged recipients of the data, and the Redfin lawsuit also names Oracle Corporation As third party recipients of User Data.
According to the complaint, Mata registered consumer accounts on Redfin.com and Zillow.com.
In the complaint, Mata’s attorneys allege, “Defendants used third-party code to track pre-recorded videos watched by subscribers and sent that data to the third-party code provider along with the subscriber’s data. [personal information]all without the valid consent of the subscriber.
“Defendants programmed such third-party tracking technologies into their websites for advertising purposes and to increase profits,” the complaint adds. “Defendants knew that such tracking technologies would transmit the activities of website visitors, including the content of videos they had watched. records of browsing, because the entire purpose of implementing such technology is to allow defendants to target ads or send marketing emails through third-party providers of that technology.”
Matta and his lawyers said the companies “knowingly deployed third-party tracking pixels and other third-party tracking technologies on their websites.”
The complaint against Redfin also highlights a document filed with Redfin Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a report in February 2024 in which Redfin admitted that it could be held liable for its use of pixel technology.
“We use evolving tools and technologies, such as pixels, in the operation of our website. We are involved in, and may in the future be subject to, law enforcement actions and private third-party claims arising from the laws to which we comply, from time to time,” the document states. “This includes third-party claims that rely on old legislation as the basis for accusations that companies using new technologies breach the privacy of consumer data.
“Companies that use tracking technology, including Redfin, have recently been the subject of data privacy lawsuits filed by third parties alleging that the use of this modern technology violates consumer privacy as defined by older laws. Many of these lawsuits have not yet been fully litigated or have been settled, As a result of the current state of legal uncertainty, many network operators are reconsidering how and whether to recover losses related to pixel-based claims that may expose us to costly litigation and insurance restrictions. Exposed to greater risk of loss,” the document continued.
Both lawsuits are seeking class action status. The classes in the Zillow lawsuit are defined as “all persons with a Zillow account in the United States who requested or viewed a video walkthrough on or through Zillow.com during the applicable restriction period” and “all persons with a Zillow account in California” .
The classes in the Redfin lawsuit are similarly defined and are divided into all “persons with a My Redfin account who requested or viewed guided video tours on or through Redfin.com during the applicable restriction period” in the United States or California.
In addition, Mata is seeking an order prohibiting Zillow and Redfin from “further unauthorized disclosures of consumer information.” [data]”, punitive damages, statutory damages, and attorneys’ fees and costs.
Zillow and Redfin did not respond to HousingWire’s requests for comment.
