Overview
- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed the 66-page lawsuit Wednesday in the 7th Judicial Circuit, alleging Netflix built a years‑long telemetry system and then used it to support an advertising business it promised it would not create.
- The complaint says Netflix logged billions of “user events” such as searches, pauses, rewinds, skips, device information and location, and that the company made that data available to commercial data brokers and advertising platforms to enable targeted ads.
- Florida highlights Kids Profiles as central to the case, alleging Netflix marketed them as a child’s safe space while still collecting the same behavioral signals from accounts for children 12 and under.
- The state argues Netflix used so‑called dark patterns—including autoplay enabled by default on Kids Profiles—to lengthen viewing sessions and gather more data, and it charges violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Florida Digital Bill of Rights.
- Netflix said the suit lacks merit, that it complies with data‑protection laws and has safeguards for kids, and the complaint adds to growing state scrutiny of Big Tech after Netflix launched an ad tier in November 2022 and follows related actions in other states.