Netflix sued for 'allegedly spying on children' and addicting users

Netflix, the world's leading video streaming platform, was sued on Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ‌accused the streaming company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent and designing its platform to be addictive.

Texas said Netflix had for years falsely represented to consumers that it did not collect or share user data, when it actually tracked viewing habits and preferences and sold the data to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies, making billions of dollars ‌a year.

The complaint quoted former Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings as saying in 2020, "We don't collect anything," as he sought to distinguish Netflix from Amazon.com, Meta, Facebook, and Google with regard to data collection.

"When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you," according to the complaint filed in a state court in Collin County, Dallas.

“Netflix’s endgame is simple and lucrative: get children and families glued to the screen, harvest their data while they are stuck there, and then monetize the data for a handsome profit,” according to Texas’ complaint filed in a state court in Collin County, near Dallas. “When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the ‌complaint added.

Paxton said Netflix’s alleged surveillance violates the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

He wants the company to purge data it collected illegally, not use the data for targeted advertising without users’ consent, and pay civil fines of up to $10,000 per violation.