Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed suit against Netflix on Wednesday, accusing the streaming company of telling subscribers it would never track their viewing habits for advertising while quietly gathering years of behavioral data, including from children’s profiles.
The 66-page complaint alleges Netflix built its reputation by promising customers that a paid subscription meant they could avoid the kind of surveillance-based advertising used by other big tech companies. Florida contends that instead, Netflix was collecting detailed user data long before it introduced an ad-supported tier in November 2022.
“Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance. That was false,” Uthmeier said. “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.”
The lawsuit cites past public statements from Netflix executives distancing the company from ad-driven rivals. It points to former CEO Reed Hastings, who said on a 2020 earnings call that Netflix was “not integrating everybody’s data,” adding “We don’t collect anything,” and calling the service “the safe respite” from companies that profit off user data through advertising.
What the state alleges Netflix tracked
According to the complaint, Netflix recorded billions of user interactions, including what people watched, searched for, paused, rewound, skipped and abandoned, along with device and location information. Florida alleges this data fed both the company’s recommendation system and its advertising operation.
The suit singles out Netflix’s Kids Profiles, which the company markets with phrases like “Great for kids” and a child’s “own space.” Florida alleges that despite this framing, Netflix used the same tracking systems on children’s accounts as it did on adult ones, collecting and analyzing children’s viewing habits.
The complaint also accuses Netflix of using “dark patterns” to prolong engagement, pointing to autoplay, which is turned on by default in Kids Profiles. Florida alleges this feature is designed to extend viewing sessions and generate more behavioral data, especially from children.
The state says Netflix later used this stockpiled subscriber data to build the advertising business it had previously said it would avoid, allowing advertisers and ad-tech firms to use the information for targeting and campaign measurement after the ad-supported tier launched in November 2022.
What Florida wants from the court
The lawsuit accuses Netflix of violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Florida Digital Bill of Rights, including claims that the company shared sensitive data collected from children without the consent required under state law.
Uthmeier is asking the court to permanently stop the alleged practices, force Netflix to delete data it allegedly collected deceptively from Floridians, halt the use of historical subscriber data for advertising, purge behavioral data gathered through Kids Profiles, ban the alleged dark-pattern designs, and impose civil penalties under Florida law.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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