ESPN is a sports network and streaming app (ESPN app / ESPN+) that is majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Corporation as a minority owner; per Disney's fiscal 2025 Form 10-K, upon consummation of a pending NFL Network transaction Disney would hold an effective 72% interest in ESPN, with Hearst and NFL Enterprises LLC holding 18% and 10% respectively. ESPN is governed by Disney's group-wide privacy policy, which discloses collection via cookies, pixels, tags and SDKs, and Disney's CCPA notice self-declares that it "sold" or "shared" data including identifiers, geolocation and browsing activity for targeted advertising. Apple's App Store privacy label for the ESPN app confirms Identifiers data is used to track users across apps and websites owned by other companies. ESPN Inc. is also a named defendant in an unresolved federal class action (Swartz v. ESPN Inc., filed September 2022) alleging it used Facebook's Meta Pixel to disclose subscribers' video-viewing history and Facebook ID to Meta without consent, in violation of the VPPA; no judgment or settlement has been found.
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Disney's current Privacy Policy, which governs Disney-owned properties including ESPN, states that Disney collects information "through a variety of technologies, such as cookies, Flash cookies, pixels, tags, software development kits," in addition to information users provide directly.
As assessed by PrivacySpy on 2021-05-26 (see PrivacySpy's rubric entry for this product for the per-claim citation): Does the service collect personal data from third parties? — Yes.
As assessed by PrivacySpy on 2021-05-26 (see PrivacySpy's rubric entry for this product for the per-claim citation): Does the policy outline the service's general security practices? — Somewhat.
The Walt Disney Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2025 (filed with the SEC, CIK 0001744489) states that, upon consummation of a pending transaction with the NFL, Disney would hold an effective 72% interest in ESPN, with Hearst Corporation and NFL Enterprises LLC holding 18% and 10% respectively, confirming ESPN's multi-owner corporate structure directly from the parent's mandatory public filing.
Disney's Your US State Privacy Rights notice, covering ESPN as part of "The Walt Disney Family of Companies," self-declares under applicable state privacy laws that Disney "'sold' or 'shared' or processed for 'targeted advertising' certain data elements" within categories including identifiers, demographic information, commercial information, internet/network activity, and approximate geolocation.
As assessed by PrivacySpy on 2021-05-26 (see PrivacySpy's rubric entry for this product for the per-claim citation): Does the policy allow personally-targeted or behavioral marketing? — Yes, but you may opt-out.
A federal class action complaint, Swartz v. ESPN Inc. (Case No. 1:22-cv-01523, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, filed September 30, 2022), alleges that ESPN used Facebook's Meta Pixel on its website and disclosed to Facebook subscribers' personally identifiable Facebook ID and the watched-video file/URL without proper consent, in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act; the complaint remains an unresolved allegation with no judgment or settlement identified.
Disney's Privacy Policy discloses that when providing relevant advertising on third-party sites and applications, Disney "may share limited personal information about you, such as certain identifiers or hashed email address, with third parties" for ad delivery and measurement purposes.
The ESPN iOS app's Apple App Store privacy label (fetched from ESPN's App Store product page) discloses that Identifiers data may be used to track the user across apps and websites owned by other companies, in addition to data linked to identity used for third-party advertising.