Here’s a class action suit over the viki privacy policy.
Apparently viki had been automatically sharing our information with the sixth letter of the alphabet. (Note-- it’s hypocrisy that viki censors our naming that website in this forum but shares our personal information with that website.)
\https://www.classaction.org/media/ade-et-al-v-viki-inc.pdf
Viki’s attorneys belatedly realized they had left viki wide open for class action suits as well as other litigation so they added a mandatory arbitration clause to the terms of use today.
IMPORTANT: If you joined viki before September 30, 2024, you can opt out of the viki arbitration clause. Here is the opt-out form – you must use your email address on the form.
https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=32852982507795
IMPORTANT-- you can only opt out if you submit the form within 30 days of your being notified of the arbitration clause.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It’s mind-boggling! We thought it was only cookies (and that is bad enough), but this Pixel thingie is something else and we certainly haven’t given consent to that one.
And to think that this information is useless in the case of all paying subscribers and QC volunteers, who don’t even get ads. It’s only useful for the free visitors.
By the way, if those three people who initiated the class action win, what do they win? Just monetary compensation for them, or the code being removed?
I see on the pdf:
"Enter injunctive and/or declaratory relief as is necessary to protect the interests of Plaintiffs and Class members, including reformation of practices and an accounting and purging of wrongfully obtained personal information; "
What exactly would be “reformation of practices”?
- removing the Pixel code? (unlikely!)
- Adding a consent box on the terms of service, so that you have to accept them sharing your info with Meta?
Ohh I doubt the EU finds this ok since they already filed lawsuits against FB, Google, Apple etc because they did something against the privacy laws we have in the EU to protect EU citizens. Will Viki or Rakuten be next? Or do they only do this for US citizens?
Thanks for the heads up!
What would one write in the field “Description”?
Thank you so much @cgwm808 for lettings us know ^^
Irmar, I’ve read more than once those terms through all these years and there are things I also do not quite understand.
There are more explicit clauses that can be object of abuse by malicious tech savvy users/hackers only.
Plain souls like us can only receive malware through links - One of those “gifts” was sent like a Christmas present to my Viki mail and I was “overjoyed” with the result 
We must be very careful with the source (both the sender and the site).
@bozoli
For “Description” I just wrote “I opt out of the arbitration clause in the Terms of Use. I joined viki prior to 9/30/2024.”
Ha ha! I wrote almost exactly the same thing!
The ones who make money on these class action suits are the lawyers. After fees, etc. Maybe the originators of the class action suit might get a few pennies? If the data was ‘shared’ all these years, then it is out. You can’t get it back because x shared with Y, then Y shared with z & a, and those 2 shared with multipile entities. Tracking all that down and purging the data is impossible at this point. Your ‘data’ along with your soul, is on the internet and the black web.
Wow, this is something! I’d never have expected this from Viki!! 
One more reason also not to use login with other website’s passwords.
No wonder it’s called Fraudbook for so many reasons I stopped using it!!
One more thing, how come “Continue to watch” is now or again working… I rejected all cookies… hmm
Digital world is just getting worse every single day without being “shadowed and followed” and fed with ads… I’m dealing with W11 now… 
So what exactly does “opting out” actually bring us? From what I understand, the only difference between staying in and opting out is the way in which any current or future issues we might have with Viki will be solved. If we opt out, things will be dealt with in a formal way (court) and if we don’t, things will be solved in less formal ways. Whichever we choose can’t be reversed.
But how likely is it for people outside the US to take Viki to court, even if they wanted to?
In any case, I didn’t find any source that said that opting out meant opting out of the META pixel. All we can hope for is that the lawsuit we can’t possibly all be a part of will lead to the removal of the pixel. And even then, as @porkypine pointed out, the damage is already done (though I’d still prefer to stop it from continuing).
So again, what will opting out of the arbitration clause bring us, global Vikians?
Not exactly. If we opt out, we have the choice either of court or of less formal ways. The less formal ways are always an option. So we have nothing to lose, doing it, just in case it may be useful in the future.
As I wrote before, I find it highly unlikely that they forsake the Meta Pixel. However, even if there is a separate consent form for it where someone can choose not to have it, then this will benefit all those who come from now on. And, frankly, although for us the data is out, still it’s not a bad idea that they stop monitoring whatever we do.
After all, we have some control over the cookies, we can set our browser options to delete them after each session. But this Meta thingie, we have no control over.
I have the impression that for now the matter concerns principally people living in the US.
I had forgotten my vee pee enne (sorry, not sure the word will be allowed) set to America before coming to Viki, and I found in front of me something that I hadn’t seen before.
Does this mean that this update is only for US-based people? I don’t know, but normally I don’t see this little window.
I got a mail regarding this from Viki.
I am unable to understand it nor I know what to do about that.
Read the first messages. There’s a link that cgwm808 provided, with a form, to opt out of the new clause so that you still have all your options available just in case you need them. This has to be done before the end of the month, otherwise you won’t be able to do it anymore.
Thank you for sharing such important information.
Hello,
I just received an email from Viki regarding this clause, but I’m unsure what it means or what action to take. Could someone please help me understand it? 
For those of you who wonder about why viki inserted the arbitration clause, I will tell you a true story.
Many year ago when I got my first iphone, the 3g, in about 2009, I bought an unlimited data plan for $25/month which was guaranteed for life from one of the largest carrier’s in the US: AT& T. I didn’t read the contract but it had an arbitration clause. Everything went smoothly for several years. Then about 2014 or so without any announcement it raised the price by $5 per month and the next year raised it another $5. Because ATT bills were notorious for adding various "fees’ to the flat rate. The customers who noticed the increase brought lawsuits. A few attorneys filed class actions suits. All suits were dismissed because the courts ruled that the contract was subject to an arbitration clause which prevented any lawsuit. A class action suit to stop the increase would have benefited millions of customers. Very few customers would have risked paying a lawyer to represent her in court over a $5 or a $10 monthly cost. That is why large corporations put arbitration clauses in the sales contract.
I have benefited from being a member of a class in a class action suit. For the iphone 6, Apple “updated” the operating system so it would slow down the batteries of the iphone 6 and 7. As a result of the class action, I received two checks, each over $100.
Follow https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/articles/32340829375763-Arbitration-Agreement
They say to put “Not Applicable” in both Subject and Description. Apparently a bot/program automatically handles the form and only cares about the email anyway.