Recall that a few months ago Crunchyroll was involved in a scandal in the United States about an alleged violation of the privacy rights of its users in that region, it turns out that the company has decided to step forward and put an end to this chapter with a measure that they hope will calm the waters and win the popular support of users before this happens and can generate more unnecessary costs to the anime streaming company.
Crunchyroll reaches settlement agreement with users affected by its personal data use policy
As mentioned in our first paragraph, Crunchyroll was involved in a class action lawsuit in the United States by the law firm led by Salvador Beltran Jr. and Eli Gross that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in September 2022, where it was alleged that Crunchyroll “violated the rights of users and the U.S. Video Privacy Protection Act by disclosing personal information and personal identifiers to third party companies including Facebook”.
It was initially known that Crunchyroll/Sony Pictures Entertainment had categorically denied the claim, but finally after a year the multinational decided to settle with the plaintiffs “to avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with pursuing the case.”.
Initially, it has been disclosed that the anime streaming giant, will have to compensate its affected users with the amount of 30 US dollars (the exact figure is not yet disclosed), but to be an eligible user for the compensation a claim form must be submitted before December 12, 2023, as well as having registered, streamed and used the website as well as the mobile application within the territory of the United States.
So unfortunately, as we read, users in this part of the continent will not be able to access this compensation payment, although it leaves the door open for regulators of countries, both in Europe and Latin America, to conduct an investigation to see how our personal data are treated by the conglomerate and if they are used according to legitimate purposes.
Finally, we want to remind you that this is a good opportunity to instill a good information culture on the Internet and to be more informed about the importance of our personal data online, as well as the treatment given by companies. We also want to know in the comments section what you think of this measure that the company has applied to avoid an even bigger legal suit.
