What is VPPA?

The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) requires that Passport members who use PBS Video apps explicitly grant PBS permission to share their viewing information (viewing history and times, devices, etc.) with the member's station. Since the agreement is between the user and PBS, not the user and the station, the VPPA authentication flow is contained and managed by PBS. 

PBS Account, the OAuth2 authentication service from PBS Digital, supports the ability for stations to request, on PBS’s behalf, that Passport users accept VPPA. This authentication process manifests as a popup box that appears when users sign up for Passport. The popup box asks the user to confirm that they are allowing PBS access to their viewing information. If a user clicks no, they will not be able to access Passport. If they accept, they can go forward with their Passport membership and view Passport content. 

The three supported use cases are as follows:

1. Users who have activated Passport but have never accepted VPPA
2. Users who accepted VPPA has expired
3. Users in the process of activating Passport

Sample report

The following is a sample report illustrating the user data that is returned. Click the image to enlarge.

How to download your VPPA report

On the first day of each month, PBS automatically generates a VPPA report and places it in folders on an Amazon S3 instance. Each station has a folder that is unique to them and you can access your customized report in the folder that bears your station's call letters. For instance, WETA can find their report in the folder labeled WETA. To access your folder, please get in touch with your station's Passport point of contact. If you are not sure who your station's Passport point of contact is, you can submit a support ticket and ask.

To download your report, you must have the following:

• A username and password that you can get from your station's Passport point of contact (submit a support ticket if you do not have a point of contact)
• An S3 client such as Cyberduck or S3 browser

The following instructions illustrate the process using Cyberduck but any S3 browser can be used.

• Open your S3 client (Cyberduck, S3 browser, etc.) and, if necessary, open a new browser window under the "File" menu.
• Click the Open Connection icon in the upper left corner (Figure 1).

Figure 1

• When the modal window opens, click the dropdown menu displaying connection-type options and click S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) (Figure 2).

Figure 2

• In the textboxes provided, enter the username and password you were given by your station's Passport point of contact (Figure 3). 

Figure 3

• Click More Options to expand the section and in the Path textbox, type /vppa-reports/ followed by your station's unique identifier (Figure 4.1). For example, if your station's unique identifier is 123456789qwertyuiop, then the path is /vppa-reports/123456789qwertyuiop. If you do not know your station's unique identifier, ask your station's Passport point of contact or submit a support ticket.

• Click Connect (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4

• After you have successfully authenticated, your customized zip file displays in the virtual folder named with the following format: [CALLSIGN]_export_[DATE].zip. If more than one file is displaying, open the most recently updated file.
• Right-click on the file to download, or click on the file and select download  from the Action menu on the modal.

Figure 5

• Your report opens.

Device definitions

• GA Roku = Roku OTT
• IOS = iOS Mobile
• GA Fire TV = Amazon Fire TV
• TVOS App = Apple TV for 4th-gen and higher devices
• AppleTV App = Legacy Apple TV 2nd and 3rd-gen devices
• Video Portal = Formerly "Player" - can be station video portal or PBS.org
• GA Android TV = Android TV
• PartnerPlayer = Formerly "Player" - can be station video portal or PBS.org
• Android = Android & Amazon mobile
• Windows = n/a