Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg News

Can a privacy law passed in the era of videotape rentals be applied in the era of Internet streaming?

Hulu, the online video content provider, is about to face the test. A lawsuit filed in a federal court in California says Hulu violated its users’ privacy by sharing their viewing history with companies that could in turn offer them tailored advertisements.

The case rests on a 1988 law, the Video Privacy Protection Act, intended to protect the privacy of video rental records. It was passed by Congress after a newspaper obtained records of what movies the conservative Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork had rented, and published an article based on them.

Hulu, which is owned by News Corporation, NBCUniversal, Providence Equity Partners and the Walt Disney Company, sought to have the case dismissed, noting that it is not a video rental business.

Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler concluded Friday that the law did not preclude application to “new technologies for prerecorded video content” and allowed the case to go ahead. Next comes the discovery of evidence and arguments. The judge has not yet ruled on the merits of the case.

The plaintiffs will seek to prove in court that Hulu violated their privacy by letting third-party companies track their movements across the Internet without their consent. To do so, Hulu allowed an analytics company, KISSmetrics, to place a “cookie” or code on their computers that included names, location preferences and programs watched. That information was in turn conveyed to other companies, from advertising networks to analytics companies to Facebook. “As to Facebook, Hulu included their Facebook IDs, connecting the video content information to Facebook’s personally identifiable user registration information,” the judge wrote.

Hulu has since discontinued using KISSmetrics, after two separate academic studies reported on the practice last year.

Hulu declined to comment on whether or how it continued to share video consumption records with third parties for advertising or other purposes.

The case could have repercussions for other video streaming services. For instance, Netflix, which allows users to stream movies online, wants to team up with Facebook to allow its users to share what movies they watch with their Facebook friends. Both companies have acknowledged that the Video Privacy Protection Act presents a hurdle. Both are lobbying to overturn the law.