Crunchyroll Will Pay You $30 For Violating Your Data Privacy Rights 17
An anonymous reader shares a report: You could be entitled to a small chunk of a $16 million class action settlement against anime streaming service Crunchyroll. The Sony-owned company settled a data privacy lawsuit this week that will result in about $30 settlements for individuals impacted, according to firm behind the class action. The complaint, filed in September 2022, claims that Sony shared individual Crunchyroll viewing information with third-party sites without user's permission. That means Google or Facebook might have seen your anime watch history without your knowledge. It's a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, which makes it illegal to video streaming services to disclose personally identifiable information without the individual's consent. Crunchyroll denies wrongdoing.
30 whole bucks? (Score:3)
That's a fortune! No, wait, three whole fortunes! /sarcasm
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That's a fortune! No, wait, three whole fortunes! /sarcasm
It's enough to buy a bunch of actual crunchy rolls ... :-)
Technically it's Sony that did this (Score:4, Interesting)
Sony bought Crunchyroll - and then, apparently, immediately started illegally sharing your data.
I know, I was shocked too.
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Ironically it sounds more like Sony spent over a billion dollars on an acquisition and then utterly failed to actually read the damn EULA someone else wrote. Badly.
Sounds like I need to get out my incredibly small violin...
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No mod points right now, but it sounds like you nailed it. It is always funny when a big corporation loses money on a really stupid purchase.
Minor thought: would the world be better if the stupid CEOs were prevented from getting into management? I do mean the truly stupid CEOs. For some reason, they worm their way into the higher levels. And stay there. And they destroy our industry.
The correct way to handle class actions (Score:1)
Always opt-out, always. You NEVER get anything of value from a class action. I mean $30?! What is that, like a few days of food. It's nothing and you're still stuck with the consequences of whatever the suit was about.
Then once the case is settled you can use that as leverage to sue for a real payout without 99% of it going to lawyers. Sometimes it's best to wait a bit to see if anything else comes out of the woodwork and you can add that on too relatively cheaply.
With that said, class actions are 100% bull
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I agree until the end of your statement. Agree that money wise it is just a transfer of money from the company to lawyers. And also that the reparations to the class members are almost always useless.
However they DO serve to change company behavior and act as a deterrent for them and others just as much as fear of any other losses/lawsuits.
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Do they, though? Or are suits like this just seen as a cost of doing business and a small fraction of the money they made by doing it?
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Always opt-out, always. You NEVER get anything of value from a class action. I mean $30?! What is that, like a few days of food. It's nothing and you're still stuck with the consequences of whatever the suit was about.
Hey now! Look on the bright side. At least they have your consent now to sell the privacy information you're forced to give up while opting IN to a lawsuit about violating privacy.
Re: The correct way to handle class actions (Score:2)
Hiring your own lawyer is most likely going to be more than $30.
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Last episode of Attack on Titan? (Score:2)
I hope it wasn't cancelled in all sense of that word these days -FFS it was not anti semitic, it was a fictional story, why does everything need to be politicized?
"Class Member ID ...in the email you received" ? (Score:2)
From TFA:
> Anyone in the US who used Crunchyroll services between September 8, 2020 and September 20, 2023 could be eligible for the settlement. Claim forms can be submitted online, and must be turned in by December 12 to receive payment.
If you click the link to "submitted online", you get a website that requires a Class Member ID before you can do anything. All it says is "Your Class Member ID can be found in the email you received." ...Yea, we haven't received an email. We got notified via WIRED.
How do
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Yeah I didn't get an email either. But there is a snail mail form, and damn it I'ma fill it out. $30 ain't much but for the price of a stamp I'll not turn it down.
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Sign up now, you can use your passport/driving license and SSN number to verify your claim. Once your ID has been linked to your data, simply give us your bank details so that we can transfer the $30 to you!
We promise not to use the new data you just provided us with for any marketing purposes ... heh heh heh
Oh (Score:2)