Ever since Netflix expanded into 190 countries internationally it has been waging war on VPN users that use the technology to bypass regional viewing restrictions. Even though Netflix has admitted that truly blocking VPN users is all but impossible, and most VPN companies have already found a way around the restrictions, the streaming giant continued to block VPNs to calm international broadcast partners, worried about Netflix's threat to traditional broadcaster power.

Consumers however have been annoyed, pointing out that VPNs are used for more than just Netflix geographic tourism. Many users continue to use VPNs as a daily part of their home network security and privacy protocol on an Internet that has grown increasingly infected with snoopertising, malware, and nosy intelligence agencies.

More than 47,000 have signed a petition pushed by consumer advocacy group Open Media, which is urging Neftlix's CEO to engage in a dialogue about the company's war on VPNs. The group says a letter sent to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings requesting a meeting was ignored.

Open Media has now taken their campaign a little further, and have been driving a mobile billboard around Netflix's hometown of Los Gatos, California directing people to the petition.

“Right now, Netflix customers are being forced to choose between watching their favorite shows and safeguarding their privacy,” the group says of the Netflix VPN ban. "Our mobile billboard is one more way we’re working to encourage Netflix to rethink their approach. The company has much better options available to it, than undermining the privacy of over 80 million paying Netflix customers in the post-Snowden world," the group added.

So far, Netflix has shown absolutely no sympathy for its blocked users, and an online position seems unlikely to change the company's position.

"It's a very small, but quite vocal minority," Hastings said of the complaining blocked users during the company's last earnings call. "So it's really inconsequential to us."

Netflix likely believes that there's not much more to say on the matter, since impacted users can still shop around and find a VPN provider that has found a way to tap dance around the restrictions. Netflix also believes that placating nervous broadcasters is a necessary step toward a greater over-arching end game: the elimination of geographic licensing restrictions entirely.