Legal Definitions - Video Privacy Protection Act

The Video Privacy Protection Act is a federal law in the United States designed to safeguard the privacy of individuals' video rental and purchase records.

It generally prohibits businesses that offer video tapes, DVDs, or similar audiovisual materials from disclosing information about what a customer has rented, purchased, or subscribed to, to other companies or individuals. This protection applies unless the customer provides explicit consent, a court order mandates the disclosure, or certain other limited exceptions apply. The intent is to prevent sensitive personal viewing habits from being shared without an individual's knowledge or permission.

• Example 1: Traditional Video Rental Store

  Imagine a local DVD rental shop that keeps detailed records of every movie its customers borrow. A political campaign approaches the shop owner, offering to pay for a list of customers who have rented documentaries about specific social issues, hoping to target them with campaign advertisements. The Video Privacy Protection Act would prevent the shop owner from providing this list, as it would disclose customers' private viewing habits without their consent.

• Example 2: Modern Streaming Service

  Consider a digital streaming platform where subscribers can rent or purchase movies and TV shows. If this platform were to decide to sell its users' complete viewing histories (e.g., "User A watched these 20 movies last month") to a data analytics company for market research without obtaining explicit permission from each user, it would be in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act. The Act's protections extend to digital services that provide similar content.

• Example 3: Unauthorized Employee Access

  Suppose an employee at a video game store that also rents out movies decides to look up the rental history of a local public figure who is a customer. The employee then shares this information with a gossip blog. Even though the disclosure wasn't a direct business transaction, the Video Privacy Protection Act aims to prevent such unauthorized access and disclosure of personal rental information, holding the entity responsible for protecting that data from being improperly revealed.