The Dutch privacy watchdog AP has fined streaming service Netflix €4.75 million for failing to properly inform clients what the company did with their personal data.

The complaint focuses on the period between 2018 and 2020 and the company has since updated its privacy statement and improved its provision of information, the AP said.

Netflix collects various types of personal data of customers, ranging from email addresses, telephone numbers and payment details to data about what customers watch on the platform, and when.

‘A company with a turnover of billions and millions of customers worldwide must explain properly to its customers how it handles their personal data,’ AP chairman Aleid Wolfsen said. ‘That must be crystal clear.”

In particular, Netflix failed to provide enough information about why it was collecting and using personal data and the legal reason for doing so, how long it kept the information and what it shared with third parties.

The complaint was made by an Austrian NGO which brought its case to the Netherlands because Netflix’s European headquarters is here.

Under EU privacy legislation, companies that process data in several EU member states have to deal with only one data protection authority. 

Netflix has appealed against the fine.