Viewers of popular anime series provided by the Crunchyroll streaming service, could get a piece of a $16 million settlement for a lawsuit related to alleged violations of users’ data privacy.

Viewers who subscribed to the streaming service between Sept. 8, 2020, and Sept. 20, 2023, could be eligible for about $30. Subscribers have until Dec. 20, 2023 to submit a claim and get their money.

The Eagle’s Eye has broken down the major points of the lawsuit for readers who may be affected by the settlement.

What is Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll is the world’s largest streaming service for anime, along with hosting manga and merch on the same site.

What is Kroll?

Kroll is a settlement administration that provides leading notices and services for class action settlements.

Who is affected?

If you’ve been subscribed to Crunchyroll from September 8, 2020 to September 20, 2023; you could be a part of a class action settlement facilitated by Kroll. On Oct. 10, 2023, platform users were notified about the lawsuit through emails. In the lawsuit, Crunchyroll is being accused of taking their users’ personally identifiable information and disclosing it to third parties without the subscriber’s consent; which violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (the “VPPA”). Crunchyroll denies the accusation but is willing to pay $16 million to avoid the uncertainties and expenses if the case continues further on; the estimated amount each user will receive in this settlement is around $30. However the final amount could be lower or higher, subscribers have until Dec. 20, 2023 to submit a claim and get their money.

As of now, Crunchyroll hasn’t said anything publicly to its audience about this settlement. Users’ have been asking the company when or if they will discuss the topic; they have not gotten an answer.

How do I get my payment if I’m eligible?

If you are eligible, all you need to do is file a claim form Kroll sent out in their email by Dec. 12, 2023. There are a variety amount of payment options available.

Have other companies been accused of this violation?

Sadly, this isn’t an uncommon thing for streaming servers or any online platforms. Some examples would be Facebook and Instagram, which make a significant portion of their profit by selling their users’ data to third parties. Twitter also collects users’ data, such as their IP address, GPS location, activity on third-party sites/apps, phone number, etc.

How do Crunchyroll users at Akins feel about this lawsuit?

The Eagle’s Eye interviewed Paolo Lozano-Sanchez, Anime Club adviser, and junior Lillian Mendez, president of the Anime Club.

Paolo Lozano-Sanchez

To be honest, in this day and age, I’m like, what is online privacy anymore? It’s sad that I have this reaction but it’s because that’s the reality. You know, I almost expect it. What I do think is messed up though is that there is a lot of minors that use those apps because it’s anime right there, Japanese cartoons. So children are being targeted, that’s where I think the line should be drawn because that’s not okay to target children; who are the most vulnerable people in the world.

I do watch on other platforms as well, but I think I’ll still use it. I don’t think they (Crunchyroll) would do this again after getting caught, you know? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Maybe they would, who knows? But I don’t think they would with the backlash that they’ve gotten.

Lillian Mendez

I’m not too concerned about the settlement. In my opinion, it makes sense because on Facebook and stuff you see so many things that you don’t post on there and it’s just like. How does that appear? If they’re just taking your activity, it’s not really that bad. Like, yeah, them doing it without your consent is a big deal. But if it’s just stuff you watch and they’re having Facebook and Google recommend stuff similar to what you watch. Then I don’t really view it as bad.

I don’t really care if they have my information because I don’t know what information they took. But if they were sending our IPs and stuff then that’s when it’s bad. I would have just stopped using it in total.

I feel like for the people whose information has been sold, they should have it to where they have a free trial(on the streaming service) or something for a period of time. $30 isn’t enough to have your information sold to big companies. Also, they (Kroll) should be targeting those companies too in my opinion because they bought it, and they were willing to spend money on something that’s illegal.

I think Crunchyroll will let this happen again because it’s owned by a big company, and a lot of big companies are shady. Amazon and Google were once under investigation for being a monopoly. It’s like, all those companies are so shady. They’re going to do it again, but this time they’re going to try to be more secretive.