Texas Sues Netflix Over Alleged Illegal Data Collection

Is Netflix a privacy-violating surveillance operation or is Texas' lawsuit a shaky case of selective enforcement?

Published MAY 12

Texas Sues Netflix Over Alleged Illegal Data Collection

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Above: Netflix's logo displayed on a smart tablet. Image credit: Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Spin

Narrative A

This lawsuit is a stretch — suing a streaming service for autoplay and data logging sets a precedent that would implicate nearly every digital platform in existence. Netflix has flatly denied the allegations, calling them inaccurate and distorted, and the legal theory here is shaky at best. Holding Netflix to a standard no other tech company faces isn't consumer protection; it's selective enforcement.

Brandon Waltens on X

Jeff Jarvis on X

Narrative B

Netflix spent years marketing itself as a privacy-respecting, family-friendly platform while secretly logging billions of behavioral data points — including from kids' profiles — and selling that data to ad tech brokers. That's not a streaming service; that's a surveillance operation with a subscription fee. Texas is right to sue, and the autoplay manipulation targeting children makes the deception even harder to defend.

Texas Attorney General

Goodness and Mercy on X