MIAMI — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, sued Netflix in the 7th Judicial Circuit (St. Johns County), alleging the streamer told families it would stay ad-free and privacy-focused while collecting detailed viewing behavior — including from kids’ profiles — and later monetizing that data for advertising.

“Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance. That was false,” Uthmeier said in a news release quoted by CBS12 and Fox News. “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.”

The complaint says Netflix recorded billions of behavioral events — devices, locations, and what users watch, pause, rewind, search, skip, or abandon — to train algorithms and power ads after launching an advertising tier in November 2022. Florida alleges kids’ profiles marketed as a child’s “own space” for ages 12 and under still fed the same telemetry systems used for adults, and that Netflix failed to get consent required under state law before selling sensitive personal data from known children.

Uthmeier’s office claims violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Florida Digital Bill of Rights. Remedies sought include a permanent injunction, deletion of data allegedly collected deceptively from Floridians, an end to alleged “dark-pattern” designs that keep kids watching, and civil penalties. At a Miami news conference he framed the case as parental control versus corporate surveillance: “We do not want them profiting off of kids’ data unless they get the permission of the parent.”

Netflix had not issued a public response by the time local and national desks filed Wednesday afternoon coverage. Whatever a court ultimately finds, the filing is another state AG test of how far paid “ad-free” platforms can go when they pivot into behavioral advertising.

Sources