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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Netflix, alleging the streaming company collects users’ and children’s data without consent while designing its platform to be addictive.
Paxton’s complaint describes Netflix as having built a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale,” alleging it “requires getting Texans and their children glued to the screen and then extracting every possible piece of data about them.”
The suit further alleges Netflix intends to “monetize the data for a handsome profit.” Netflix has denied that it sells user data to third parties, an assertion reflected in the complaint.
The document also quotes Netflix CEO Reed Hastings from a January 2020 earnings call, where Hastings said Netflix was different from competitors such as Amazon and Meta. “We’re not integrating everybody’s data. We’re not controversial that way,” Hastings said, according to the complaint.
Netflix is described as the most popular streaming service, with revenue primarily driven by subscriptions. The company added ad-supported tiers in 2022.
Netflix subscription prices currently range from streaming with ads for $9 to premium plans with Dolby Atmos and 4K for $27.
Netflix has faced prior legal action involving privacy concerns. The company paid $9 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it shared user data in 2011, while denying wrongdoing.
Separately, in 2022, Texas reached a settlement with Google after alleging Google collected biometric user data without explicit consent through services including Google Photos, Google Assistant and Nest Hub Max.
In March, Google and Meta were found liable in a lawsuit brought by a 20-year-old woman who alleged that YouTube and Instagram were designed to be addictive to children, a development that could influence other claims involving digital platforms.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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