Josh Constantine reports: Facebook has changed its story after initially trying to downplay how it targeted teens with its Research program that a TechCrunch investigation revealed was paying them gift cards to monitor all their mobile app usage and browser traffic. “Less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market…
Category: Online
TikTok Hit With $5.7 Million Fine Over Child Privacy
Krista Gmelich reports: Musical.ly, the popular teen video app now known as TikTok, will pay a record $5.7 million to settle claims by the U.S. government that it illegally collected personal information from children. Musical.ly reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency said Wednesday in a statement, resolving allegations that the social-media…
EPIC Joins Coalition Calling on FTC to Investigate Facebook for Deception of Children
From EPIC.org: A coalition of consumer groups sent a complaint to the FTC, charging that Facebook engaged in unfair and deceptive practices and violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act after court documents from a 2012 class action lawsuit revealed that Facebook encouraged children to make credit card purchases on Facebook’s platform. Parents and minors…
Patients, health data experts accuse Facebook of exposing personal info
Emily Birnbaum reports: A group of patients and health data experts is accusing Facebook of misleading users about how their personal health information can be manipulated and exposed without patients’ explicit permission. In a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint released publicly on Tuesday, the group alleges that Facebook prompts its users to join online medical support groups under the guise that they are…