FTC Staff Report Finds Large Social Media and Video Streaming Companies Have Engaged in Vast Surveillance of Users with Lax Privacy Controls and Inadequate Safeguards for Kids and Teens

From the Federal Trade Commision (FTC):

A new Federal Trade Commission staff report that examines the data collection and use practices of major social media and video streaming services shows they engaged in vast surveillance of consumers in order to monetize their personal information while failing to adequately protect users online, especially children and teens.

The staff reportis based on responses to 6(b) orders issued in December 2020 to nine companies including some of the largest social media and video streaming services: Amazon.com, Inc., which owns the gaming platform Twitch; Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.); YouTube LLC; Twitter, Inc. (now X Corp.); Snap Inc.; ByteDance Ltd., which owns the video-sharing platform TikTok; Discord Inc.; Reddit, Inc.; and WhatsApp Inc.

The orders asked for information about how the companies collect, track and use personal and demographic information, how they determine which ads and other content are shown to consumers, whether and how they apply algorithms or data analytics to personal and demographic information, and how their practices impact children and teens.

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The staff report makes recommendations to policymakers and companies based on staff’s observations, findings, and analysis, including:

Congress should pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation to limit surveillance, address baseline protections, and grant consumers data rights;

Companies should limit data collection, implement concrete and enforceable data minimization and retention policies, limit data sharing with third parties and affiliates, delete consumer data when it is no longer needed, and adopt consumer-friendly privacy policies that are clear, simple, and easily understood;

Companies should not collect sensitive information through privacy-invasive ad tracking technologies;

Companies should carefully examine their policies and practices regarding ad targeting based on sensitive categories;

Companies should address the lack of user control over how their data is used by systems as well as the lack of transparency regarding how such systems are used, and also should implement more stringent testing and monitoring standards for such systems; Companies should not ignore the reality that there are child users on their platforms and should treat COPPA as representing the minimum requirements and provide additional safety measures for children;

The Companies should recognize teens are not adults and provide them greater privacy protections; and

Congress should pass federal privacy legislation to fill the gap in privacy protections provided by COPPA for teens over the age of 13.