1.  The WSJ Channel sends its users’ video viewing activity and  uniquely identifying PII to data analytics and advertising  company mDialog.    1.  mDialog and other analytics and advertising companies  maintain massive digital dossiers on consumers.     12.  At no time during this process, however, does Wall Street Journal  seek or obtain the consent of the user to share or otherwise disclose his or her PII  to third parties for any purpose.   13.  The WSJ Channel is organized into certain categories that are  accessible through the software’s main user interface. (See Figure 2, showing the  WSJ Channel’s graphical user interface). Users may browse around these sections  to view video clips and news reports. (See id.)  (Fig 2.)   15.  Today’s average consumer uses more than one device to access the  Internet to do things like view digital content or make online purchases. This  creates challenges for online advertisers and analytics companies. Namely, to gain  a broad understanding of a given consumer’s behavior across all of the devices and  applications that he or she uses, these companies have to find ways to “link” their  digital personas. The primary solution has been to use certain unique identifiers to  connect the dots.    17.  An example of a device manufacturer supplied user identity in the  consumer electronics context is a device’s serial number. That’s because device  serial numbers are “persistent identifiers,” meaning they are unique to a specific  device and remain constant for the lifetime of the user’s device. In other words,  once a Roku serial number is matched with an individual’s identity, it’s  exceedingly difficult for that person to avoid being tracked via their device— making it among the most stable and reliable identifiers for a given individual.   18.  Once a consumer’s identity is matched with their device’s serial  number (or other “persistent identifier”), a wealth of extremely precise information  can be gleaned about the individual. For instance, software applications that  transmit a Roku’s serial number along with the user’s activity provide an intimate  look into how the user interacts with their channels, which can reveal information  such as the user’s political or religious affiliation, employment information,  articles and videos viewed, and even detail about the sequence of events in which  the user interacts with their Roku.       2.  The President and Congress are responding to growing  privacy concerns over the collection and misuse of personal  information in the digital marketplace.    21.  mDialog’s website quotes its CEO and founder, Greg Philpott, as  saying, “Individual targeting is the holy grail for advertisers on both IP-connected  devices as well as traditional television.”3 The same mDialog webpage states that,  “With mDialog’s Smart Stream platform, content owners and service providers can  configure their ad decisioning service to tailor a unique set of ads for each  individual viewer.”   23.  For its part, Congress has started to take up these issues as well. In  2011, Senators Patrick Leahy and Al Franken established the United States Senate  Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law  that, among other things, oversees the laws and policies governing (i) the  collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information by the  private sector, including online behavioral advertising, privacy within social  networking websites and other online privacy issues, (ii) privacy standards for the  collection, retention, use and dissemination of personally identifiable commercial  information, and (iii) privacy implications of new or emerging technologies.5   25.  Members of other subcommittees have made similar remarks. In a  meeting of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and  Insurance, Senator John Rockefeller noted that, “third parties use [consumer data]  to target advertising on individuals . . . It is very good business, but it is very  cynical. It is an abuse of that power, passing on people’s profiles.”7   27.  At the same time, and perhaps most strikingly, classified documents  from the National Security Agency (NSA) reveal that the government agency  targets this very information (uniquely identifying data sent from digital devices)  to create detailed profiles on individuals.9      28.  Despite the controversy surrounding these methods of harvesting and  commodifying sensitive consumer data, Wall Street Journal chose to disclose users  of its WSJ Channel’s sensitive information to a third party analytics and  advertising company.  37.  Numerosity: The exact number of members of the Class is unknown  and is not available to Plaintiff at this time, but individual joinder in this case is  impracticable. The Class likely consists of thousands of individuals. Class  members can be easily identified through Defendant’s records.   39.  Typicality: Plaintiff’s claims are typical of the claims of the other  members of the Class. Plaintiff and the Class sustained damages as a result of  Defendant’s uniform wrongful conduct during transactions with Plaintiff and the  Class.   40.  Adequate Representation: Plaintiff will fairly and adequately  represent and protect the interests of the Class, and has retained counsel competent  and experienced in complex litigation and class actions. Plaintiff has no interests  antagonistic to those of the Class, and Defendant has no defenses unique to  Plaintiff. Plaintiff and her counsel are committed to vigorously prosecuting this  action on behalf of the members of the Class, and have the financial resources to  do so. Neither Plaintiff nor her counsel has any interest adverse to those of the  other members of the Class.   43.  Plaintiff reserves the right to revise the foregoing “Class Allegations”  and “Class Definition” based on facts learned through additional investigation and  in discovery.  44.  Plaintiff incorporates the foregoing allegations as if fully set forth  herein.   46.  Plaintiff is a “consumer” as defined by the VPPA because she  downloaded, installed, and watched videos using the WSJ Channel. 18 U.S.C. §  2710(a)(1). Under the Act, this means that she was a “subscriber” of “goods or  services from a video tape service provider.” See id.   47.  While the WSJ Channel was installed on her Roku, Plaintiff viewed  numerous video clips using the channel. During these occasions, the WSJ Channel  sent Plaintiff’s PII—including her device’s serial number and records identifying  the videos that she viewed—to the third party analytics and advertising company  mDialog.   48.   The WSJ Channel’s transmissions of Plaintiff’s PII to mDialog  constitute “knowing[] disclosures” of Plaintiff’s “personally identifiable  information” to a person as proscribed by the VPPA. 18 U.S.C. § 2710(a)(1).    50.  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) defines  “personally identifiable information” as “any information that can be used to  distinguish or trace an individual’s identity.”11 As described in detail in Section II  above, Plaintiff’s PII transmitted to mDialog from the WSJ Channel can be used to  distinguish or trace her identity.     51.  At no time did Plaintiff ever provide Wall Street Journal with any  form of consent—either written other otherwise—to disclose her PII to third  parties.    52.  Nor were Wall Street Journal’s disclosures made in the “ordinary  course of business” as the term is defined by the VPPA. In particular, the WSJ  Channel’s disclosures to mDialog (an analytics and advertising company) were not  necessary for “debt collection activities, order fulfillment, request processing, [or]  the transfer of ownership.” 18 U.S.C. § 2710(a)(2).   9.  The WSJ Channel is a digital software application that allows  consumers to view Wall Street Journal’s news and entertainment programming on  their televisions via Roku’s media-streaming device.    I.  Defendant Programmed the WSJ Channel to Transmit Its Users’ PII  and Video Viewing Activity to a Third Party Analytics and Mobile  Advertising Company Without Their Consent.    Violations of 18 U.S.C. § 2710  (On behalf of Plaintiff and the Class)  