Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Netflix alleging the streaming platform collected and shared users' personal data without their permission. The action seeks to hold the company accountable under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The lawsuit claims Netflix uses intentional engineering to track users' viewing habits, preferences, devices, household networks, application usage and other data. The lawsuit states, "Every interaction on the platform became a data point revealing information about the user."

According to the filing, the tracking applied to both adults' accounts and children's profiles, and Netflix shared the information with commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies. The lawsuit claims Netflix earns billions of dollars every year from secretly selling consumer data to commercial brokers and online advertising businesses.

"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," Paxton said. Paxton argues that Netflix collected user data, including from children's accounts, despite claims otherwise by the company.

The lawsuit further alleges that Netflix deliberately engineered its platform to be addictive, citing its autoplay feature as a tool to keep users, including children, watching for extended periods.

The complaint asks that Netflix stop collecting and disclosing user data without consent and disable autoplay by default on children's profiles. The suit was filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

In an emailed statement, a Netflix spokesperson said, "Respectfully to the great state of Texas and Attorney General Paxton, this lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information. Netflix takes our members' privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data-protection laws everywhere we operate. We look forward to addressing the Texas Attorney General's allegations in court and further explaining our industry-leading, kid-friendly parental controls and transparent privacy practices."