Texas lawsuit alleges Netflix is illegally spying on kids
Texas lawsuit alleges Netflix is illegally spying on kids
The state accuses the streamer of shady data collection practices and other abuses in its suit.
Netflix’s legal team had better book a flight for the Lone Star State. The streamer faces a new lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, whose attorney general, Ken Paxton, claims that Netflix pulled a bait-and-switch on customers with its move into advertising and spies on children by collecting their data to sell.
Key Details:
- Cut it out: The lawsuit accuses Netflix of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
- Shady doings: The suit says Netflix unlawfully collected customer data without disclosure.
- Not so fast: Netflix’s statement on the suit says the case “lacks merit.”
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Paxton accuses Netflix of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Specifically, the suit accuses the streamer of a “years-long bait-and-switch,” luring customers with its ad-free plan before launching an ad-supported tier that secretly mines their data.
The streamer’s autoplay feature also comes under fire in the lawsuit, specifically in how it targets children. Netflix is accused of using autoplay to get kids addicted to its content, and enabling autoplay by default is just another way for the streamer to collect user data.
The suit quotes Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings as saying “we don’t collect anything” in 2020 as he tried to explain the difference between Netflix’s data collection practices and those of Amazon, Google, and other big tech firms. But whether or not Hastings’ words could be considered a binding promise in perpetuity is up to the court to decide.
Netflix has responded to the lawsuit with a statement defending itself and saying the case is a big ball of nothing.
“Respectfully to the great state of Texas and Attorney General Paxton, this lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” the statement says. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data protection laws everywhere we operate.”
Nearly all tech companies harvest consumer data in one form or another, so it seems the state will have a high bar to clear to prove that Netflix’s tactics for collecting data are unlawful. But plaintiffs have been successful in similar lawsuits recently; in September, a federal jury awarded more than $425 million to a class of users who accused Google of collecting data without authorization.
Netflix
Netflix is a leading subscription-based video streaming service that offers on-demand access to an extensive library of over 3,000 movies, 2,000+ TV shows, and a growing collection of acclaimed Netflix originals. Renowned for producing groundbreaking content, Netflix has become a cultural powerhouse with hit originals like “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” “Squid Game,” “The Crown,” “Tiger King,” “Bridgerton,” “The Witcher,” and “Black Mirror.”