Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Netflix for allegedly “spying on Texans, including children, and collecting users’ data without their knowledge or consent.”

“For years, Netflix represented to consumers that it did not collect or share extensive user data. In reality, Netflix is a logging company that records and monetizes billions of behavioral events—and occasionally streams movies,” a press release from Paxton’s office said.

“Netflix uses intentional engineering to track and log users’ viewing habits, preferences, devices, household networks, application usage, and other sensitive behavioral data. Every interaction on the platform became a data point revealing information about the user. This tracking applied to not only adults’ accounts, but also kids’ profiles,” it continued.

“Netflix has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it,” Paxton said.

“Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions. I will continue to work to protect Texas families from deceptive practices by Big Tech companies and ensure that corporations are held accountable under Texas law,” he added.

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More from Paxton’s office:

Netflix has then disclosed this information to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies, where it was combined with data collected from other platforms to build detailed consumer profiles. Netflix users’ data is essentially shopped across Big Ad Tech’s shadowy network. The company earns billions of dollars every year from secretly selling consumer data.

The company also designs its platform to be addictive. This is accomplished using features that are designed to manipulate users to take actions Netflix wants them to take. For example, the autoplay function creates a continuous stream of content intended to keep users, including children, watching for extended periods of time.

“Attorney General Paxton is seeking to hold Netflix accountable under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (‘DTPA’). The lawsuit seeks to stop the unlawful collection and disclosure of user data, require Netflix to disable autoplay by default on kid’s profiles, and secure other injunctive relief and civil penalties,” the press release added.

Variety shared further:

One of the lawsuit’s main points is that Netflix for years said it would not introduce advertising as part of its service, before launching an ad-supported plan in late 2022. The suit quotes remarks by then-CEO Reed Hastings on an earnings call in January 2020 as saying, “We don’t collect anything. We’re really focused on just making our members happy, and we’re not tied up with all that controversy around advertising.”

The State of Texas’ lawsuit says: “In short, Netflix sold subscriptions to its programming as an escape from Big Tech surveillance: pay monthly, avoid tracking. Texans trusted that bargain. Netflix broke it — constructing the very data-collection system subscribers paid to escape.”

The Texas AG’s lawsuit was filed May 11 in Texas District Court in Collin County.

 

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