Unhappy Client Takes DraftKings to Court over Data-Sharing Violation

A DraftKings client has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that the American operator committed severe data violations. According to the plaintiff, the gambling company unlawfully provided data regarding his behavior on social media to Facebook.

DraftKings Transferred Data Without Its Customers’ Consent

According to the class action, which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, DraftKings leveraged Facebook’s tracking tools, which allowed the Meta-owned social media company to collect data about sports bettors’ viewing habits and the games they had interest in wagering on. The complaint says that DraftKings effectively transmitted all data of its players’ watched videos and purchases to Facebook.

Plaintiff Jeffrey Wan’s legal representatives emphasized that he had never agreed to have his information distributed to third parties, such as Facebook. As a result, he alleged that DraftKings’ actions have violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).

The tools that DraftKings allegedly used included Facebook Pixel and Conversions API. The former, according to the complaint, was used to track, record and send Facebook its customers’ granular Website and Apps activity and the names of pieces of audio-visual media that customers viewed. Wan’s legal team argued that this is more than metadata.

While DraftKings’ privacy policy makes it clear that some crucial third-party products, services and materials might be integrated into its business, the plaintiff argued that in this case, the tools were not essential to the operator’s business. Even if they were, Wan’s legal team added, they could have been used in a less intrusive way.

The lawsuit concluded that the plaintiff and the class members had not consented to having their video-viewing data transmitted to third parties without their knowledge.

DraftKings Faces a Separate Lawsuit

In the meantime, an affected other recently filed another lawsuit against the betting operator, alleging that the gambling company had taken significant amounts of money from her husband who was suffering from gambling addiction.

The complaint said that the man had lost almost $1 million of the family savings on bets because of his problem. The man has apparently been affected by a worsening problem gambling condition for several years, causing him to wager more than he could afford.

Instead of following its own safer gambling rules, DraftKings allegedly incentivized the man to keep on playing.