Ubisoft is Getting Sued Over Alleged Illegal Data Sharing With Meta

At this point, even if you've become disillusioned with Ubisoft and, like many others, think that the studio will close its doors any day now, you can't help but feel sorry for the once-revered developer whose iconic games you used to enjoy. As if they didn't have enough on their plate already, dealing with the delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows and subpar financial results from other major 2024 projects, the studio is now also facing a potential class-action lawsuit over allegations of sharing Ubisoft Store user data with Meta.

As reported by PC Gamer, the lawsuit accuses Ubisoft of illegally collecting information about Ubisoft+ subscribers using Meta's Pixel, an analytics tool that tracks user actions on a website to measure ad effectiveness, without disclosing this to users, thus allegedly "exposing the subscribers' personally identifying information (PII) to any person of ordinary technical skill who received that data."

Although companies collecting every bit of information about their users they can get their hands on is, unfortunately, nothing new these days, the lawsuit argues that Ubisoft's use of Pixel is unlawful, claiming violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act, the Federal Wiretap Act, and the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

In light of the allegations, plaintiffs Trevor Lakes and Alex Rajjoub – "individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated" – are seeking financial compensation for privacy violations and a court order requiring Ubisoft to either remove Pixel or obtain explicit consent from users to share their data with Meta.

At the moment, the lawsuit is still awaiting class action certification, giving Ubisoft a chance to address the issue before the legal battle fully begins, but nevertheless, the lawsuit's mere existence shows yet again that the company's streak of bad luck doesn't seem to have an end in sight.

Just yesterday, Ubisoft released a statement that all but confirmed the earlier reports of discussions with Tencent about a potential acquisition, revealing that they are considering several "strategic options" to meet the needs and expectations of its stakeholders. The studio also stated that it does not plan to change its strategy and will continue to focus on open-world and live service games.

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