Texas Scorecard by Brandon Waltens 5/11/2026
“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you."Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Netflix, accusing the streaming giant of secretly harvesting extensive behavioral data from Texans—including children—while publicly portraying itself as a privacy-focused alternative to other major tech companies.
“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the state’s lawsuit declares.
The lawsuit, filed in Collin County under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, alleges Netflix misled consumers for years by claiming it did not rely on advertising or extensive user-data collection while quietly building what the state describes as a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”
According to the petition, Netflix repeatedly assured consumers that it was different from companies like Google and Facebook because it did not monetize user data through advertising.
The filing cites statements from Netflix executives, including CEO Reed Hastings, who previously said the company had “no intention of monetizing with ads” and that Netflix did not “collect anything” in the way other major tech companies do.
“Netflix has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it,” Paxton said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-sues-netflix-for-allegedly-spying-on-children-and-consumers/
