Ryan Singel reports:
An in-the-closet lesbian mother is suing Netflix for privacy invasion, alleging the movie rental company made it possible for her to be outed when it disclosed insufficiently anonymous information about nearly half-a-million customers as part of its $1 million contest to improve its recommendation system.
The suit known as Doe v. Netflix (.pdf) was filed in federal court in California Thursday, alleging that Netflix violated fair-trade laws and a federal privacy law protecting video rental records, when it launched its popular contest in September 2006.
The suit seeks more than $2,500 in damages for each of more than 2 million Netflix customers.
Read more on Threat Level.