A lesbian is suing Netflix amid concerns that the company did not do enough to ensure user data would remain anonymous once released and made available to the public.
Wired reports that the mother of two is suing the movie rental company alleging Netflix made it possible for her to be "outed" by disclosing insufficiently anonymous information about nearly half-a-million customers. The information was disclosed as part of the company's bid to find a more reliable recommendation system for customers.
When Netflix released the 100 million movie ratings, along with the date of the rating the company assigned a unique ID number to the subscriber, and the movie information. However, according to Wired, two Texas University students quickly identified a number of Netflix subscribers by comparing their “anonymous” reviews in the data to ones posted on IMDb.
According to the suit, the woman believes that were her sexual orientation made public, it would negatively affect her ability to pursue her livelihood and support her family as well as hinder her and her children’s ability to live peaceful lives.
Filed in a federal court in California on Thursday, the suit alleges that Netflix violated fair-trade laws and a federal privacy law protecting video rental records. The anonymous woman is demanding $2,500 in damages for each of more than 2 million Netflix customers.
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