The popular online video site Hulu was recently slapped with a lawsuit that claimed it sold users' personal viewing habits to companies that used that information to develop personalized ads.
Hulu claims it should not be subject to the case, which was filed in California and is being sought as a result of the Video
Privacy Protection Act of 1988, according to a report from the
New York Times. That law was designed to prevent third parties from gaining access to information related to consumers' video rental histories.
For its part, Hulu says that the law doesn't apply to it because it does not rent videos to users, the report said. However, a judge ruled that the law did not preclude its being applied to newer, similar technologies in video content. Plaintiffs argue the company violated its own privacy policy in sharing the data.
Eduard Goodman, the chief privacy officer for
Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways in which consumers can increase the protection of their personal information online.
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