Lawsuits Allege Netflix Violates Privacy

Lawsuits Allege Netflix Violates Privacy - Netflix, the Internet darling, has come under fire from various privacy advocates. The company has been the subject of five (!) separate lawsuits in the past two months, all of which center on some of its privacy policies. The lawsuit alleges that Netflix holds onto customer data like rental habits and credit card numbers long after people had canceled their membership.

One lawsuit, filed last Friday, alleges Netflix is in the business of “collecting, storing and maintaining for an indefinite period of time, the video rental histories of every customer that has ever rented a DVD from Netflix.”

Another lawsuit called Netflix “Big Brother,” saying that the company regularly “tramples” over the privacy rights of its customers.

In a fun little coincidence, all the lawsuits have been filed in the same district court in northern California that Sony has been fighting George “GeoHot” Hotz tooth-and-nail. (Did you hear the one about the guy who turned down a job at Sony because of its treatment of GeoHot?)

Netflix hasn’t commented on the lawsuits yet.

Remember: there’s nothing stopping you (yet) from buying your DVDs the old fashioned way, with cash and at a physical store.