A prominent national law firm is investigating one of the country’s most widely used digital library platforms, raising significant questions about what happens to the private reading and streaming habits of millions of public library users across the United States.
Hoopla Digital, Inc. is a digital media platform that allows library members to access eBooks, audiobooks, movies, and other digital material online and through its mobile app. The service is available through thousands of public library systems nationwide and has become a go-to resource for Americans looking to access entertainment and educational content at no personal cost. But the platform is now under legal scrutiny over how it may handle the personal data of its users.
Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP is investigating potential claims against Hoopla on behalf of consumers who used the platform and whose reading or content viewing activity, together with their personally identifying information, may have been disclosed to third-party tracking or analytics providers without proper consent.
The implications of such disclosures are considerable. The information allegedly disclosed to third parties may include details of a user’s content use on Hoopla, such as the materials the user viewed, borrowed, read, or streamed. For many library patrons, the expectation of privacy around what they read or watch is deeply held — one long protected under traditional library confidentiality principles. The idea that a digital platform might be quietly transmitting that information to outside companies without users’ knowledge strikes at the heart of those expectations.
These disclosures may violate federal and state privacy laws, including the Video Privacy Protection Act, known as the VPPA, and other state consumer privacy laws.
The VPPA has become an increasingly powerful legal tool in the digital age, even though it was originally passed decades ago. The Video Privacy Protection Act is a federal statute enacted in 1988 in response to the disclosure of then-Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s videotape rental history by a video store to a reporter who published the list. Despite its analog origins, the law has proven remarkably adaptable. The VPPA has become a leading basis for privacy class actions in the digital age, with plaintiffs’ lawyers now using it to challenge the use of website analytics, streaming platforms, cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies that collect and share viewing data.
The financial stakes in such cases can be significant. The plaintiff’s bar has been incentivized by the VPPA’s $2,500 per violation liquidated damages provision, meaning that if violations are proven across a large user base, potential damages could climb into the millions or even billions of dollars.
Labaton Keller Sucharow is pursuing these claims through its consumer-facing platform Lantern, which it created to make legal action more accessible for everyday people. Lantern by Labaton empowers users to get compensation from corporations that have violated their rights, with all cases backed by Labaton Keller Sucharow, a national law firm that has recovered more than $30 billion for clients.
The Hoopla investigation is part of a broader wave of digital privacy litigation targeting apps and platforms that users often trust implicitly. Similar investigations and lawsuits have been brought against a wide variety of services that collect video-viewing data and share it with third-party advertisers or analytics companies. Many users do not realize that when they use certain apps, their personal information — such as email addresses, digital identifiers, and details about what videos they watch — may be collected and shared with third-party advertisers and analytics companies through behind-the-scenes data sharing that occurs without users’ knowledge or consent.
For Hoopla users, the case raises a pointed question: when you borrow a digital book or stream a film through your library card, who else is watching?
Those who have used the Hoopla platform and believe their data may have been shared without their consent may be eligible to participate in the investigation. The process is confidential, as arbitration is a private proceeding. No upfront fees are required to participate in Labaton’s consumer claims process.
Hoopla Digital has not yet publicly responded to the investigation. The legal proceedings are in early stages, and no court has yet determined that any wrongdoing occurred.
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