Coursera Hit With Lawsuit Over Sharing of Students’ Viewing Info

Online educational-video provider Coursera Inc. allegedly shared the video-viewing information of students with Facebook without their consent in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, a proposed federal class action said.

Iman Ghazizadeh alleged that Coursera’s website used the Facebook “pixel,” a snippet of code allowing Facebook to collect information about videos viewed by Coursera students.

Facebook in turn used the information to build comprehensive data profiles of Coursera students with Facebook accounts, allowing it to improve its ability to provide them with targeted advertising, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District ...