Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, has sued Netflix. He alleges that the company collected detailed data on subscribers and their children, then used it to build the advertising business it had said it would never run. The 66-page complaint was filed on 9 September in the circuit court for St. Johns County.
“Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance. That was false,” Uthmeier said in a statement. Netflix told Gizmodo and Politico that the lawsuit “lacks merit” and that it will “vigorously defend the matter in court”.
What Florida says Netflix promised
The complaint rests on what Netflix executives said before the ad-supported tier launched in November 2022. In 2016, it says, a Netflix vice president, Todd Yellin, criticised Google and Facebook for “serving two masters”, the consumer and the advertiser. It quotes a 2019 shareholder letter that told investors any suggestion Netflix was “moving into selling advertising … is false”. The letter called this “a deep part of our brand proposition”.
It also quotes Reed Hastings, then chief executive, on a January 2020 earnings call. Netflix was “not integrating everybody’s data”, he said, unlike Google, Facebook and Amazon. “We don’t collect anything,” he told analysts, according to the transcript cited in the complaint. Courthouse News’s Alex Pickett reported that Hastings also told Vanity Fair: “We buy no data. We don’t sell any data.”
Against those statements, the complaint sets a 2016 talk by Netflix engineer Peter Bakas. “We’re really a [data] logging company … a logging company that occasionally streams movies,” he said, according to the filing.
The state says Netflix logs billions of user “events”. According to the complaint, these record what users click, how long they linger, when they pause, what they replay or skip, where they are and which devices and apps they use. It links that data to Netflix’s growth. Between 2018 and 2026, the complaint says, annual revenue rose from about $15bn to a projected $50bn or more, and paid memberships from just over 130 million to well beyond 300 million.
The allegations about children
The state says Netflix told parents that kids profiles were a child’s “own space” and marketed them as “Great for kids”. It alleges that Netflix collects behavioural data through those profiles, through Netflix Playground and through Netflix Games. That includes what children click, replay or skip, according to the complaint.
Netflix has said it does not serve behavioural ads on kids profiles. The complaint argues that this statement leaves out the fact that the company still collects behavioural data about children. It says Netflix gives parents no “clear or meaningful disclosure” of that collection.
The filing also targets autoplay, which starts the next episode automatically. The feature is on by default for every profile, including kids profiles, the state says. “Autoplay undermines parental control of screen time and content consumption,” the complaint reads. It also accuses Netflix of designing its sign-up and cancellation screens to obstruct cancellations.
Advertisers and data brokers
The fifth count concerns the sale of data. Florida alleges that Netflix lets advertisers match their own customer data with Netflix’s through LiveRamp or direct integrations. It says the company has opened data access to the brokers Experian and Acxiom. It names the ad-buying platforms Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP and Amazon DSP as partners too.
Under the Florida Digital Bill of Rights, data collected from a known child and precise location data count as sensitive data. The state says Netflix sold such data without the consent the law requires. Netflix also never showed the notice the law demands, it says: “NOTICE: This website may sell your sensitive personal data.”
What Florida wants
The lawsuit brings five counts under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Florida Digital Bill of Rights. It asks for a jury trial. Florida wants Netflix ordered to delete data it says the company collected deceptively. It also wants all behavioural data from kids profiles deleted. And it asks the court to bar ad systems built with data from the years Netflix said it would not collect any.
The complaint seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per wilful violation of the trade practices law. For the digital rights law, it seeks up to $50,000 per violation. Under the digital rights law, it asks for triple penalties where the violations involve known children. “We will be seeking billions of damages,” Uthmeier said at a press conference in Miami, Kimberly Leonard reported for Politico.
Netflix’s response
“Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously. We comply with privacy and data-protection laws everywhere we operate and have dedicated safeguards in place for kids who watch content on Netflix,” a spokesperson told AJ Dellinger of Gizmodo.
Netflix told Gizmodo that it discloses how it collects and uses personal information in its privacy statement and terms of use. It said members can turn off behavioural ads at any time. It also said kids profiles need no separate advertising controls, because they are not shown behavioural ads.
Florida’s other cases
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a similar lawsuit against Netflix in May. A Netflix spokesperson said then that it was based on “inaccurate and distorted information”, Courthouse News reported.
Uthmeier has also sued TikTok under Florida’s child social media law, and OpenAI over ChatGPT’s safety. Politico reported that he kept Florida out of a $17bn multistate settlement with Meta, saying the amount was “not enough to punish” the company. Uthmeier, a Republican, is running for election in November to keep the post.
California has also moved on autoplay. This week it banned personalised feeds and autoplay for users under 16.
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