There’s really only one Florida Man on the mind of Big Tech companies lately, and that is Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The latest target of his tech-centric crusade is Netflix, which Florida’s lead prosecutor alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday misled consumers by collecting data from families including minors, and using that information to build an advertising operation that it previously promised it would never build.
The 66-page complaint, filed in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, alleges that Netflix used the massive trove of data that it collected from its users, including children’s profiles, to create targeted advertising, and that it granted third parties access to that data without obtaining consent from consumers.
At the core of the case seems to be Netflix’s repeated promises, which the lawsuit lays out with direct quotes from company founder and former CEO Reed Hastings and other executives, that part of what users were paying for with their Netflix subscription was freedom from advertising and data collection. That all changed in 2022, when the streamer launched its ad-supported tier.
“Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance. That was false,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a statement. “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.”
Uthmeier points to Netflix’s giant trove of information on what it calls “user events” as proof of the scale of the data-collection operation, noting the company has long collected everything from a user’s device location to their search history, interactions with the platform like pausing or rewinding, and when users stop watching programs—all of which the lawsuit claims Netflix has used to create “an empire built on deception.”
A spokesperson for Netflix told Gizmodo, “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. This lawsuit lacks merit and we intend to vigorously defend the matter in court.”
According to Netflix, the company discloses its collection and use of personal information in its Privacy Statement and Terms of Use, which includes, among other things, the users’ right to understand and request reporting on how their personal information is used. The company said that members can turn off behavioral ads at any time, and argued that profiles for children don’t need separate advertising controls because those profiles are not served behavioral advertising.
Netflix is just the latest company to catch Florida’s attention. Previously, the AG of the state sued TikTok for allegedly violating child safety laws, and sued OpenAI over consumer safety concerns.
