If you reside in the United States or its territories and if, at any time between June 1, 2008 and March 3, 2011, you used any web browsing program on any device to access any websites or online content controlled, operated or sponsored by the defendants or the Undertaking Parties, or any website employing any of Clearspring’s or Quantcast’s or VideoEgg’s technologies involving the use of HTTP (browser) cookies or Adobe Flash LSOs, a class action lawsuit settlement may affect your rights.
A class action settlement has been reached with Quantcast Corporation (“Quantcast”), Clearspring Technologies, Inc. (“Clearspring”) and VideoEgg, Inc. (“VideoEgg”) which deliver advertisements through web browsers and analyze traffic to websites, and with the owners or sponsors of certain websites, including American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.; Demand Media, Inc.; ESPN, Inc.; Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.; Hulu, LLC; JibJab Media, Inc.; MTV Networks; MySpace, Inc.; NBC Universal, Inc.; Scribd, Inc.; Soapnet, LLC; Walt Disney Internet Group; and Warner Bros. Records, Inc. and certain of their parent companies who elected to participate in the settlement, including News Corporation, Viacom Inc., The Walt Disney Company and Warner Music Inc. (the website-operating defendants and their corporate parents are collectively referred to as the “Undertaking Parties”) in several class action lawsuits pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California styled (In Re Quantcast Advertising Cookie Litigation, Case No. 2:10-cv-05484-GW-JCG, In Re Clearspring Flash Cookie Litigation, Case No. 2:10-cv-05948-GW-JCG, Davis, et al. v. VideoEgg, Inc., Case No. 2:10-cv-07112-GW-JCG), according to the Quantcast, Clearspring & VideoEgg Flash Cookie privacy class action lawsuit settlement website and settlement notice.
The Quantcast, Clearspring & VideoEgg Flash Cookie privacy class action lawsuit complaints reportedly alleged that Quantcast, Clearspring and VideoEgg, like some other third-party service providers, used files called Adobe Flash Player local shared objects (“LSOs,” also known as “Flash Cookies”) and that defendants allegedly used LSOs or Flash Cookies to circumvent users’ attempts to block or delete browser cookies and allegedly did not provide adequate notice or choice about the use of LSOs or Flash Cookies on their websites, purportedly in violation of Class Members’ privacy rights.
Quantcast, Clearspring & VideoEgg Flash Cookie privacy class members reportedly include all persons, unless otherwise excluded, who reside in the United States or its territories and at any time between June 1, 2008 and March 3, 2011 used any web browsing program on any device to access any websites or online content controlled, operated or sponsored by the defendants or the Undertaking Parties, or any website employing any of Clearspring’s or Quantcast’s or VideoEgg’s technologies involving the use of HTTP (browser) cookies or Adobe Flash LSO.
As part of the proposed class action settlement, Quantcast and Clearspring will create a Settlement Fund of $2.4 million, and VideoEgg will create a Settlement Fund of $825,000. This money will reportedly not be paid to Class Members. Some portion of these Settlement Funds will be used to pay the costs of administering the settlement (including notice costs) and, if approved by the Court, to pay incentive awards to the ten Named Plaintiffs and an attorneys’ fee to Class Counsel. The majority of the Settlement Fund will reportedly be dedicated to “cy pres” relief—money that will be donated to Court-approved non-profit organizations to fund research, education or activities to promote consumer awareness and choice regarding the privacy, safety, and security of electronic information from and about consumers.
Quantcast, Clearspring and VideoEgg also reportedly agree, as part of the flash cookie settlement, that they do not presently, and will not in the future, employ LSOs or Flash Cookies to:
- “respawn” HTTP (browser) cookies;
- serve as an alternative to browser cookies for storing information about a user’s web browsing history, unrelated to the delivery of content through the Flash Player or the performance of the Flash Player in delivering such content, without adequate disclosure; and/or
- otherwise counteract any computer user’s decision to either prevent the use of or to delete previously created browser cookies.
The Undertaking Parties have reportedly agreed, as part of the Flash Cookie settlement, that:
- They will request that rules that the online advertising industry has agreed to follow—specifically, the 2008 Network Advertising Initiative Principles (the “NAI Principles”) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Self Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising—be amended to (i) include express prohibitions on the use of LSOs or any similar technology to regenerate, without disclosure, browser cookies that a user affirmatively deleted; and (ii) include guidance to member firms that LSOs should not be used without disclosure as an alternative method to browser cookies for storing information about a user’s web-browsing history across unaffiliated domains, unrelated to the delivery of content through the Flash Player software or the performance of the Flash Player in delivering such content. If an Undertaking Party has decision-making authority to implement these changes, it will use that authority.
- Each will, in its online Privacy Policy or an opt-out page clearly linked to it, maintain a link to one of several tools that exist or are in development to assist consumers in opting out of certain online behavioral advertising.
- Undertaking Parties that use LSOs themselves will clearly disclose that fact, provide a link from their Privacy Policies to a third-party tool allowing users to manage LSOs, and advise users if any aspect of their websites, widgets, or application components may not maintain its or their full user functionality unless the user’s settings permit full acceptance of LSOs.
- Each will establish an email address or other online reporting mechanism to which members of the public can send any privacy-related concerns respecting the operation of the Undertaking Party’s websites.
- These provisions will remain in effect until June 30, 2013.
The Court will reportedly hold a class action settlement hearing on June 13, 2011 at 9:30 a.m., before the Honorable George H. Wu, United States District Judge for the Central District of California, 312 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, California 90012 to consider the Quantcast & Clearspring settlement as well as a class action settlement hearing on July 18, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. to consider the VideoEgg settlement.
For more information on Quantcast, Clearspring & VideoEgg flash cookie LSO class action lawsuit settlement, including information on how to object to or opt out of the settlement, visit the Quantcast, Clearspring & VideoEgg flash cookie lawsuit settlement website:
www.flashcookiesettlement.com
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