Netflix is being sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has accused the streaming platform of “spying on Texans, including children, and collecting users’ data without their knowledge or consent.”
Paxton said Netflix had promised “that the company does not collect and integrate user data, and that kids profiles are specially designed to protect children.” Instead, he alleges, Netflix “quietly built a behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”
“This program requires getting Texans and their children glued to the screen and then extracting every possible piece of data about them while they are there,” he said in the lawsuit filed Monday.
Paxton—a Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate—said the alleged surveillance practices violate the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the lawsuit claims.
Paxton further accused the streaming company of employing “dark patterns” such as its autoplay feature to “manipulate users to take the actions Netflix wants them to take,” thus stripping away “the natural breaking points that queue a user to step away from their screen.”
A spokesperson for Netflix told TIME that the company intends to address the allegations in court.
“Respectfully to the great state of Texas and Attorney General Paxton, this lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” the spokesperson said. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data protection laws everywhere we operate.”
The court filing points towards comments made by former Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who said in 2020 that the company was not integrating everybody’s data.
“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,” Hastings said during an earnings call.
“Netflix sold subscriptions to its programming as an escape from Big Tech surveillance: pay monthly, avoid tracking,” the lawsuit claims. “Texans trusted that bargain. Netflix broke it—constructing the very data-collection system subscribers paid to escape.”
Paxton is requesting a temporary restraining order to prevent Netflix from “collecting, sharing, selling, disclosing, using, or other disclosing any data it collects about Texas consumers.”
He’s also asking that Netflix “purge” all data collected of Texans and wants assurances that the company won’t employ user data for targeted advertising without first obtaining users’ “express, informed consent.”
By way of a financial penalty, the Texan official wants Netflix to pay civil fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
Paxton this week reached a settlement with LG, after he filed a lawsuit against the electronic company as well as four others in December, accusing each of “spying” on Texans.
The settlement requires LG to update its smart TVs to display a disclosure to users when looking at the Viewing Information Agreement.
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