Consumers Allege Netflix Failed to Protect ‘Anonymized’ Data, Violated Privacy Policies

Video rental firm Netflix knew or should have known that the personal data of a putative class of some 500,000 subscribers was not properly protected from disclosure when it provided allegedly “anonymized” data sets on their viewing habits to third parties as part of a research contest, according to a complaint filed Dec. 17, 2009, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Doe v. Netflix Inc.).

The complaint alleged that California-based Netflix failed to live up to privacy protection promises it made to customers in privacy and data security policies posted online when, in ...