Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Netflix

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the streaming service Netflix on May 11, 2026, in a civil court located in Collin County. The legal action alleges that the company illegally collected consumer data from both adults and children without their knowledge or consent.

The 59-page lawsuit claims that Netflix utilizes intentional engineering to track and log a wide array of user information. According to the filing, the data collected includes viewing habits, preferences, devices used, household networks, application usage, and other sensitive behavioral data.

Paxton alleges that this information is not used solely for improving the user experience but is shared with commercial data brokers and advertising companies. The lawsuit asserts that these third parties use the data to build detailed advertising profiles of the users.

In an announcement accompanying the lawsuit, the Texas Attorney General characterized the company’s operations as being more focused on data collection than entertainment.

Netflix is a logging company that records and monetizes billions of behavioral events—and occasionally streams movies. Ken Paxton

The lawsuit further contends that Netflix earns billions of dollars annually by secretly selling this consumer data. Paxton described the process as data being shopped across Big Ad Tech's shadowy network.

Allegations of Addictive Design

Beyond the collection of personal data, the lawsuit targets the design of the Netflix platform. Paxton claims that the company intentionally designs its interface to be addictive, specifically citing the use of the autoplay function as a tool to keep users engaged longer than they might otherwise intend.

The Attorney General argued that these design choices are part of a broader strategy to increase the amount of behavioral data the company can collect and subsequently monetize.

Netflix has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it. Ken Paxton

Contradictions of Company Statements

The legal filing opens by citing a 2019 statement from Reed Hastings, the co-founder and former CEO of Netflix. In that statement, Hastings claimed that the streaming company did not collect information in the manner that creates advertising controversies.

We’re really focused on just making our members happy, and we’re not tied up with all that controversy around advertising. Reed Hastings

Paxton asserts that this public positioning is misleading. The lawsuit argues that Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be, but has instead exploited private data for financial gain.

The Attorney General stated that he intends to hold the corporation accountable under Texas law to protect families from what he described as deceptive practices by Big Tech companies.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the alleged surveillance program and address the unauthorized collection of data from user profiles, including those specifically designated for children.