If you’re unsettled about Netflix watching your every move during your next embarrassing binge watch, you’re not alone.
In a new lawsuit, the state of Florida accused the streaming giant of deceiving customers about its plans to make money from ads, concealing the ways it collects behavioral data, and exposing kids to addictive design features.
“Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance. That was false,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a press release. “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.”
Uthmeier, a Republican running in November’s race for a four-year term, succeeded the state’s former attorney general Ashley Moody when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed her to fill a Senate seat left empty by Trump’s current Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The complaint accuses Netflix of pulling users in with a bait-and-switch scheme that initially promised them ad-free privacy, while quietly collecting vast troves of data on their activity to fine-tune future advertising. In the lawsuit, Florida’s attorney general points to the company’s collection of “user events” – behavioral data points that include location, keyword searches, streamed content, and even when a viewer pauses or rewinds a video.
Beyond data collection, Florida takes issue with Netflix profiles designed specifically for kids, which the company represents as a “safe, protected environment,” according to the lawsuit. In the complaint, the attorney general’s office points to the addictive nature of autoplay – a feature enabled by default on children’s profiles.
“For a busy parent trying to manage a household under pressure, autoplay is a vise grip designed to keep her child fixed under Netflix’s microscope,” the lawsuit states. “Netflix never told Floridians this.”
A political template against big tech
Earlier this year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a separate very similar complaint against Netflix, accusing the company of misleading its users while extracting their behavioral data. “Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be,” Paxton said of his decision to sue the company on behalf of his state.
Paxton’s suit and the new Florida complaint show that politicians see an advantage in stirring up anti-tech sentiment in two key red states ahead of November. Paxton is running for U.S. Senate this fall and hoping to stave off an upset win from Democratic challenger James Talarico.
In Florida, the Netflix complaint is just the attorney general’s latest broadside against big tech among a flurry of recent lawsuits. Uthmeier sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in early June, slamming the company for “[choosing] the AI race over the safety and security of our kids.” Two weeks later, Florida announced a fresh lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the sticky short-form video app of violating state child protection laws.
“We’re going to send a message to Big Tech companies: if you hurt our kids, you are going to have to pay for it,” Uthmeier said during a press event announcing the decision to sue Netflix. “And so, in this lawsuit, we will be seeking billions of damages.”