{"id":289169,"date":"2026-05-12T06:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289169\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:29:22","slug":"texas-sues-netflix-for-alleged-data-collection-of-children-without-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289169\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Sues Netflix for Alleged Data Collection of Children Without Consent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"u-speakableText-p1\">Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28112957-paxton-v-netflix\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" class=\"c-regularLink\">sued streaming service Netflix<\/a>, alleging that the company collects users&#8217; and children&#8217;s data without their consent while making the platform addictive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"u-speakableText-p2\">The complaint alleges that Netflix built a &#8220;behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale&#8221; that &#8220;requires getting Texans and their children glued to the screen and then extracting every possible piece of data about them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The suit alleges that Netflix plans to &#8220;monetize the data for a handsome profit,&#8221; though Netflix has denied it sells its data to third parties, including in the complaint. The document quotes Netflix CEO Reed Hastings from a January 2020 earnings call, in which he said the company was different from competitors like Amazon and Meta.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not integrating everybody&#8217;s data. We&#8217;re not controversial that way,&#8221; Hastings had said, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/home-improvement\/internet\/streaming-stats\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" class=\"c-regularLink\">most popular streaming service<\/a>, and its main source of revenue has been primarily subscription-based, though it added <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/netflix-to-launch-ads-on-a-cheaper-plan-starting-next-month\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active\" target=\"_blank\">ad-sponsored tiers in 2022<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/netflix-price-hike-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active\" target=\"_blank\">company&#8217;s subscriptions<\/a> currently range from streaming with ads for $9 to premium with Dolby Atmos and 4K for $27.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix has been through the courts over privacy concerns before: the company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/netflix-pays-9-million-to-settle-privacy-violation-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">paid $9 million to settle a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0alleging it shared user data back in 2011, though it denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in 2022, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/you-cant-use-this-google-photos-feature-in-2-states-theres-a-hidden-reason-for-that\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active\" target=\"_blank\">Texas AG settled with Google<\/a> after alleging it collected biometric user data without explicit consent, via services such as Google Photos, Google Assistant and Nest Hub Max.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In March, Google and Meta were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/meta-google-negligent-social-media-addiction-trial-california\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active\" target=\"_blank\">found liable in a lawsuit<\/a> brought by a 20-year-old woman who alleged that YouTube and Instagram were designed to be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/health\/mental\/social-media-still-isnt-a-safe-space-for-children-a-crackdown-is-underway\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active\" target=\"_blank\">addictive to children<\/a>, paving the way for other platforms and streaming services to be potentially held liable for addiction.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued streaming service Netflix, alleging that the company collects users&#8217; and children&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-289169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}