Do you have a Facebook, Google, TikTok, or Microsoft account? Have you used a mortgage website or financial portal within the last two years?
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, as well as TikTok, Google, and Microsoft have been under scrutiny for their practice of collecting the sensitive financial information of users of mortgage brokerage websites. These websites collect their users’ private financial data through bits of code known as “pixels,” which are embedded in the website. Pixels allow websites to track visitor activity including clicks, page views, keystrokes, and other actions, and often share the users’ sensitive financial information, including information about credit scores, occupation, veteran status, and the specific houses the user was interested in, with Meta and other big tech companies. These companies profit from sensitive financial information by using it to sell advertisements relating to financial products.
An investigation by The Markup found that nearly one third of major mortgage broker’s websites shared private financial data with Facebook through the Meta Pixel. These companies include:
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation
LendingTree
Veterans United Home Loans
Doorway Home Loans
ZeroDown
Rocket Mortgage
Ruoff Mortgage
Motto Mortgage
Penfed
Consumers who have used one of these or other mortgage brokerage websites may have had their information unlawfully shared without their consent in violation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and other privacy laws.
Do you qualify?
You may qualify for this financial data sharing class action lawsuit investigation if you have a Facebook, TikTok, Google, or Microsoft account and used a mortgage brokerage website within the last two years.
Fill out the form on this page for more information.
What are pixel trackers?
A pixel is a bit of code that is inserted into a website to record information about visitors, including the actions they take on the website. A website may contain multiple pixel trackers, each one corresponding to and sending information to a different company.
The most common pixel is the Meta Pixel, a JavaScript snippet that collects and shares user activity with Meta. The plugin can then be used to customize advertisements and other features. According to Facebook’s 2018 response to a congressional questioning, there were 2.2 million Pixels installed on websites across the internet.
Information gathered through Meta Pixels is then linked to active Facebook accounts. This may result in the unlawful sharing of sensitive information, including financial data protected by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and other big tech companies have their own pixels that are nearly identical in function to the Meta pixel. Each of these pixels tracks and shares the activities of website users. As a result, each of these companies potentially collects sensitive and protected financial information from users of these websites.
Which mortgage brokerage companies shared financial data with Facebook?
In May 2024, The Markup released an article announcing that it “tested more than 700 websites that offer loans for people looking to purchase or refinance a home, from major online brokers to lesser-known regional lenders, and found that more than 200 of them share some amount of user data with Facebook.” which sent Facebook sensitive financial data generated by users of the mortgage websites. Additionally, The Markup found the Meta Pixel was logging information contained within the mortgage applications themselves on some websites, including Indiana based Ruoff mortgage.
Within the financial space itself, major names like Zillow and RedFin have already been hit with lawsuits over their use of tracking technology.
Join a pixel mortgage brokerage website class action lawsuit investigation
If you have a Facebook, TikTok, Google, or Microsoft account and used a mortgage brokerage website within the last two years, you may qualify to participate in this financial data sharing class action lawsuit investigation.
Fill out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.