Netflix sued by Texas for allegedly spying on children, addicting users

Netflix was sued on ​Monday by Texas ​Attorney General Ken Paxton, ​who accused the streaming company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting ‌their ⁠data ⁠without consent, and designing its platform ​to be addictive.

Texas said Netflix has for years ​falsely represented to consumers that it did not collect or share ​user data, when it ⁠actually tracked ‌viewing habits and ​preferences ​and sold the data to ⁠commercial data brokers and advertising technology ​companies, making billions of dollars ​a year.

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The complaint quoted former Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings as saying in 2020 "we don't collect anything," as he sought ‌to distinguish Netflix from Amazon.com, Facebook, Google with regard ​to data ​collection.

"When you ⁠watch Netflix, Netflix watches you," according to the complaint filed in a state ​court in Collin County, near Dallas.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.