Florida AG Uthmeier Sues Netflix, Alleges Company Secretly Tracked Kids and Sold Their Data

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed suit against Netflix on Wednesday, September 9, accusing the streaming giant of running a years-long "bait-and-switch" on families that trusted its promises about data privacy and kids' safety.

The 66-page complaint, filed in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in St. Johns County, alleges Netflix recorded billions of behavioral data points on subscribers, including what they watched, paused, rewound, skipped, searched for and abandoned, according to Law Commentary and Quartz. The suit says the company also collected device and location information, including activity tied to profiles used by children.

"Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance. That was false," Uthmeier said in a statement announcing the case, as reported by NBC News and Quartz. "Netflix collected detailed data on children and families, designed its product to keep kids watching, and then commercialized that information to launch the advertising business it promised never to build."

Five Claims Under Florida Law

Florida is pursuing five counts, according to Law Commentary. Four allege deceptive or unfair practices under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, targeting Netflix's alleged commercialization of subscriber data, its representations about Kids Profiles, its statements on tracking and advertising, and design features the state says were built to keep viewers watching. A fifth count accuses Netflix of violating the Florida Digital Bill of Rights by selling sensitive personal information, including data tied to known children, without required consent.

Netflix offers Kids Profiles for children 12 and under, marketed as a child's "own space" free of behavioral advertising. The complaint alleges Netflix continued to collect and analyze children's viewing activity through the same systems used on adult accounts, even on those profiles, according to Law Commentary and NBC News.

Hastings' 2020 Comments Cited as Evidence

The complaint leans heavily on public statements by then-CEO Reed Hastings during a January 22, 2020, earnings call, according to The Epoch Times and Breitbart. Hastings told investors Netflix's model "was not based on using customer data," adding: "We don't collect anything, we're really focused on just making our members happy and we're not tied up on all that controversy around advertising."

Hastings also drew a contrast with Google, Facebook and Amazon, saying Netflix wanted to be a "safer" space where users "can explore, you can get stimulated, have fun, enjoy, relax, and have none of the controversy around exploiting users with advertising." Uthmeier's office alleges those representations were false at the time they were made and that Netflix was already building the behavioral-tracking infrastructure it would later use for advertising, according to Breitbart. Hastings stepped down as Netflix's board chairman in June, per The Epoch Times.

Florida says the turning point came in November 2022, when Netflix launched its ad-supported tier amid slowing subscriber growth, according to NBC News. The state claims that after the ad launch, years of accumulated subscriber data became part of an advertising operation letting advertisers target audiences by household composition, income and life stage, without the consent Florida law requires.

Netflix Pushes Back

Netflix denies all of it. "Netflix takes our members' privacy seriously," a company spokesperson said, according to NBC News and Quartz. "We comply with privacy and data-protection laws everywhere we operate and have dedicated safeguards in place for kids who watch content on Netflix. This lawsuit lacks merit and we intend to vigorously defend the matter in court."

Nothing in this complaint has been proven in court. These are allegations by a state attorney general, not findings by a judge or jury, and Netflix disputes every element of them. The company maintains it has safeguards specifically for children and complies with applicable law, and it has not conceded that its Kids Profiles use behavioral advertising or that its 2020 statements were false when made.

Uthmeier is asking the court for a permanent injunction, an order forcing Netflix to purge data collected from Floridians, elimination of design features the state calls addictive, and unspecified billions in civil penalties and other monetary relief. "Parents, not streaming corporations, need to direct the upbringing of children," Uthmeier said at a news conference, according to The Epoch Times and Breitbart.

Part of a Broader Pattern

The Netflix suit is not an isolated move. Uthmeier's office sued OpenAI in early June 2026 over AI safety practices and sued TikTok the same month over state child-safety law, according to NBC News. Texas has also sued Netflix over similar allegations of spying on children, per a case referenced in The Epoch Times' reporting. Separately, California sued Roblox in February 2026 over child-safety concerns on that platform, according to Breitbart, part of a wider wave of state legal action against platforms popular with kids.

Netflix is based in Los Gatos, California, and has not yet filed a formal response in the St. Johns County case. The next concrete step is a motion to dismiss or an answer from Netflix's attorneys, which will test whether Florida's Digital Bill of Rights, a relatively new state statute, can support billion-dollar civil penalties against a company of Netflix's size. How a Florida circuit court judge interprets that law could shape whether other states follow with similar claims against streaming and ad-tech platforms.