A recent lawsuit claims that Meta, the company behind Facebook, allegedly shared users’ DMs with Netflix for almost a decade. This was done so Netflix could customize content for its users, as claimed in the court documents, Daily Mail reported.
Court documents reveal Facebook shared access to users’ DMS in return for their watch history to Netflix for over $100 million
As per the paperwork, Facebook provided access to users’ private messages in return for their viewing history. Additionally, it’s claimed that the video streaming service paid Facebook over $100 million, watcher.guru reported.
Recently revealed court documents from a significant anti-trust lawsuit against Meta were unsealed on March 23. These documents were filed last April. They seem to have unveiled the complex ties between two major players in Silicon Valley.
The lawsuit was brought forth by Maximilian Klein and Sarah Grabert. It alleges that Facebook and Netflix had a ‘special relationship.’ Specifically, Facebook granted the streaming service ‘bespoke access’ to user data.
The report further states, “It is no great mystery how this close partnership developed, and who was its steward: from 2011-2019, Netflix’s then-CEO Hastings sat on Facebook’s board and personally directed the companies’ relationship.”
Insights into Netflix’s integration with Facebook and Meta’s response
According to the document, in 2011, the streaming platform announced a Facebook integration to share user data internationally. Additionally, according to the document, Netflix started lobbying Congress to permit such data sharing in the US.
Moreover, the report mentions that the video streaming platform raised its advertising spending on Facebook. As per the report, ad spending on Facebook amounted to about $150 million yearly by early 2019.
The two primary plaintiffs in the class action case against Meta stated that ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted in 2018, revealing Facebook’s inadequate privacy protections and subpar data privacy practices, they lost trust in the platform. They expressed their desire to sue to ensure that others’ privacy was respected.
A Meta spokesperson told MailOnline: “Meta’s non-exclusive agreements and relationships mentioned in this complaint are commonplace in the industry and enable Meta to deliver more value to advertisers resulting in better outcomes for all. We are confident the facts will show this complaint is meritless.”
