A new report by Federal Trade Commission staff concludes that major social media and video streaming companies are “commercially surveilling” users, including children and teens, through the collection and exploitation of their personal information. The report raises serious concerns about the complete absence of meaningful privacy safeguards, about extensive data retention by user, and about appalling deficiencies in the protection of young users online. If you’re a user of platforms like Meta, YouTube, TikTok, or Amazon’s Twitch, this affects you more than you might think.
What the FTC Report Unveils: Data Collection on a Massive Scale
The 6(b) orders from the FTC required that nine of the largest social media and video streaming services provide comprehensive information. These services include Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly Facebook; Amazon.com, Twitch; YouTube of Google; Twitter, now X Corp.; Snap Inc., Snapchat; ByteDance, TikTok; Discord; Reddit; and WhatsApp.. The report laid bare the pervasive surveillance business model that undergirds these companies’ gathering, storing, and monetizing of personal data on users of all ages-including those not using their platforms.
These findings demonstrate that many of these services retain enormous amounts of user data, including data from data brokers, and share it with third parties without controls or oversight in place. Meanwhile, some companies even failed to delete the user data that was explicitly requested to be deleted.
Children and Teens at Risk: Inadequate Safeguards
But perhaps most disturbing were the report’s findings regarding the lack of protection for children and teens. While COPPA forces websites to adopt some kind of privacy practice for those under 13, many services simply claimed not to service children to avoid this liability altogether. The report went on, however, to show how teens were handled no differently than adult users, with little attempt to establish limitations or special protection for younger users.
In particular, teenagers are extremely vulnerable to the negative effects of social media, a great number of whom are then exposed to the tracking and targeting that invades privacy. Research included and cited in this report indicates that social media is detrimental to young people’s mental health; therefore, the current policy cannot protect them online.
For more on how platforms like TikTok and Instagram impact mental health, visit FTC’s Report on Child Privacy.
Targeted Advertising: Lucrative yet Hazardous Practice
The report from the FTC will only encourage social media and video streaming companies to collect as much user data as possible, with most of that data coming from targeted advertising, still their biggest source of revenue. These companies will be able to serve highly personalized ads based on users’ interests and behaviors through the use of invasive tracking technologies like pixels and cookies.
However, all of these practices raise serious concerns with regard to user privacy. While personalized adverts bring in a lot of money, they also expose users to quite a number of risks such as identity theft and stalking; sensitive information that relates to location or preference can easily be abused.
Algorithms, AI, and Data Analytics: Feeding the Machine
It also focuses on how such platforms use personal data within automated systems, like algorithms, data analytics, and AI. These systems determine which content should be shown to users; however, they give little or no control over how personal data is used. Most users aren’t even aware of how much their data is being fed into these systems.
Worse still, such automated systems typically lack transparency and effective oversight-things that increase the vulnerability of user data to unclear or potentially harmful uses.
Want to learn more about AI algorithms running content recommendations? Check out YouTube’s Transparency Center:
The Recommendations by FTC: A Call for Change
The FTC report doesn’t just outline the problems; it also tees up a series of recommendations to policy makers and companies on how to fix these issues. Some of the more central recommendations include:
- Limiting data collection: Businesses should only collect the data that is necessary for their operations and implement data minimization policies to enforce the practice.
- Strengthening privacy safeguards for teens: Social media platforms need to realize that teens are not adults and provide stronger protections to them.
- Principle of Data Retention and Data Sharing: Data is to be deleted when it is no longer relevant. Data sharing with third parties should also be avoided to the maximum extent.
- Transparency of Privacy Policies: Companies are supposed to implement privacy policies in a readable, understandable, and user-friendly way.
The FTC strongly recommends that Congress pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive data practices, including clear consumer data rights such as surveillance protection and more stringent limits on targeted advertising.
To learn more about the topic of federal privacy legislation and consumer protection, one may visit Consumer.FTC.gov.
The Impact on Competition: Data Dominance
It also briefly touches on how such practices give the tech giants a competitive edge, further entrenching their dominance in the market. Since these companies have built up so much user data over time, it instantly makes them far more competitive than smaller platforms that would have to prioritize user privacy and thus be unable to offer the same level of personalization in advertising.
Competition comes as a result of fewer choices whereby users have no great alternatives; thus, they get forced into platforms where profits may be prioritized over privacy. This counts toward consumer choice, which we strongly need to address and nurture further toward more competition within the digital sphere.
Conclusion: Protect Your Privacy Starting Today
The report from the FTC serves as an eye-opener for consumers, policymakers, and technology companies. If one browses through social media or utilizes video streaming services, then it would be great to understand how their data is used in the necessary protection steps. Review the privacy settings of your accounts, limit what personal information you share, and stay informed about how these companies operate.
Take control of your online presence to help protect your personal info. See the FTC’s Privacy Tips for more information.
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