Florida sues Netflix, alleges streamer tracked children after promising families privacy

By Fox News · Fox News

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued Netflix on Wednesday, accusing the streaming giant of misleading subscribers by promising an ad-free, privacy-focused service while secretly collecting years of behavioral data — including from children's profiles — to build the advertising business it long insisted it would never create. The 66-page lawsuit alleges Netflix built its brand by assuring consumers that paying a monthly subscription meant they could avoid the surveillance-driven advertising model used by other major technology companies. Instead, Florida alleges Netflix quietly collected extensive user data before launching its ad-supported platform in November 2022. "Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance . That was false," Uthmeier said in a news release announcing the lawsuit. "Netflix collected detailed data on children and families, designed its product to keep kids watching, and then commercialized that information to launch the advertising business it promised never to build. Parents, not corporate executives, direct the upbringing of their children. Netflix should expect to be held accountable." The complaint points to repeated public statements from Netflix executives who touted the company as different from advertising-supported competitors. Among them, the lawsuit cites former CEO Reed Hastings, who said during a 2020 earnings call that Netflix was "not integrating everybody's data," adding, "We don't collect anything," and describing the streaming service as "the safe respite" from companies that exploit users through advertising. WASHINGTON POST FACES CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT ALLEGING 'SURVEILLANCE PRICING' OF SUBSCRIBERS Florida alleges those assurances were misleading because Netflix built what the lawsuit describes as a massive behavioral-data operation that records how subscribers use the platform. According to the complaint, Netflix tracks billions of user interactions, including what subscrib…