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The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said a multi-year analysis found that social media giants engaged in a “widespread surveillance operation” to monetize users’ personal information.
A committee report, based on inquiries made to nine companies about four years ago, found that vast amounts of users’ personal data were being collected by these companies, sometimes through data brokers, and that the companies could retain it indefinitely.
“The report shows how social media and video streaming companies are collecting vast amounts of Americans’ personal data and harvesting billions of dollars from it each year,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan.
“The failure of many companies to adequately protect children and teens online is particularly troubling,” Khan added.
Khan considered that surveillance practices expose people to the risk of being tracked and pursued, as well as having their personal information stolen.
According to the report, companies’ business models based on targeted advertising have encouraged the widespread collection of user data, putting profit at the expense of privacy.
“While these surveillance practices are profitable for companies, they can put people’s privacy at risk, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a range of harms, from identity theft to stalking,” Khan warned.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau responded that Internet users understand that targeted advertising is in exchange for services they enjoy for free online, noting that the industry “strongly” supports a comprehensive national data privacy law.
“We are disappointed that the FTC continues to characterize the digital advertising industry as engaging in mass commercial surveillance,” said FTC CEO David Cohen in a post responding to the report.
The findings were based on responses to requests sent in late 2020 to Meta, YouTube, Snap, Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance, and X.
The report indicated that some companies did not delete all the data that users requested to be removed.
In addition to asserting that social media companies have been lax in protecting children who use their platforms, FTC staff cited a report that such platforms can harm the mental health of young users.
The report called on social media companies to limit data collection practices, and urged the US Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation to limit the surveillance of users of these platforms.
