Texas attorney general Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit against streaming service Netflix over its advertising.
According to the lawsuit, Netflix went back on its promise to remain ad-free and safe for kids when the service announced an ad-supported plan back in 2022. By offering digital advertising, the lawsuit claims Netflix was able to use “the mountains of data it quietly extracted from the children and families.”
Netflix allegedly collected information on “user events,” such as a user’s location, what device they’re using, what they searched for, what ratings they gave the content they watched, and more. Netflix then allegedly allowed data brokers like Experian and Acxiom to access this data.
The lawsuit also claims Netflix lied about child safety. It pointed to the service’s autoplay feature, which is turned on by default for adult and kid profiles, as proof.
”Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be,” reads the lawsuit.
”Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions.”
In a response provided to The Verge, Netflix spokesperson Jamil Walker pushed back against the lawsuit and said it “lacks merit.”
”Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data-protection laws everywhere we operate,” reads the statement.
”We look forward to addressing the Texas Attorney General’s allegations in court and further explaining our industry-leading, kid-friendly parental controls and transparent privacy practices.”
The lawsuit does not seek any monetary damages. Instead, it wants the court to block Netflix “unlawful and collection and disclosure” of user data. It also wants the court to force Netflix to disable autoplay by default for kids’ profiles.
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