Social media platforms and video streaming services pose serious risks to users’ privacy, with children and teens most at risk, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The more than 100-page report details these companies’ efforts in data, advertising, and recommendation systems, and how they rely on information about users to sell ads. Users also “lacked meaningful control over how personal information was used for AI-powered systems” on the companies’ platforms, the report said.
“While lucrative for companies, these surveillance practices can jeopardize people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a range of harms, from identity theft to harassment,” FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan said in a press release.
The report includes staff recommendations calling for federal privacy legislation as well as more efforts by companies to prioritize privacy in their data collection systems and recommendations. It also says parents should have more control over what information is collected from children and teens.
“Protecting users, especially children and teens, requires clear basic protections that apply across the board,” the FTC said.
DATA PROTECTION LAWS
The report comes at a time when concerns about data collection, privacy, and AI-powered recommendation systems have become an increasingly bipartisan issue in an era of deep political divisions. Some legislation has moved forward, notably the Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Adolescent Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0, both of which passed the Senate and recently passed in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“COPPA should be the floor, not the ceiling,” the FTC stated in its recommendations.
In December 2020, the FTC initially ordered Amazon, Facebook and WhatsApp (now under Meta), Twitter (now X), ByteDance, YouTube, Reddit, Snap, and Discord to provide data on how they collect and use their users’ personal information.
The report examined 13 platforms owned by the companies, including Twitch, Facebook, Messenger, Kids Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, X, TikTok, YouTube, YouTube Kids, Snapchat, Reddit and Discord.
The report found that the companies engaged in “extensive surveillance” by collecting and retaining personal information about consumers, regardless of whether or not they are users of the companies’ platforms. Some companies purchased this information from data brokers, the report said.
WHAT DIFFERENT COMPANIES THINK
Representatives for Amazon, ByteDance and Reddit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kate Sheerin, director of U.S. and Canada public policy at Discord, said the FTC report is an “important step” but said it “lumps very different models together and paints a very broad picture, which could confuse consumers and portray some platforms, like Discord, inaccurately.”
Sheerin disputed the report’s claim that user privacy concerns “stem from a business model that varies little across these nine companies.”
Jose Castaneda, a spokesman for Google, of which YouTube is a subsidiary, said the company does not sell people’s personal information or use sensitive information to serve ads.
“We prohibit personalization of ads for users under 18 and do not personalize ads for anyone viewing ‘content made for kids’ on YouTube,” Castaneda said.
An X spokesperson said the FTC report indicates the company “has made tremendous strides in protecting user safety” since the FTC ordered its former iteration Twitter to report on data collection practices in 2020. The spokesperson said only 1% of X’s U.S. users are between the ages of 13 and 17.
“X takes user data privacy seriously and ensures users are aware of the data they share with the platform and how it is used, while also giving them the option to limit the data that is collected from their accounts,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Representatives for Snap and Meta declined to comment on the report.
Children and teens’ privacy was not adequately protected on these social media platforms and streaming services, the report said.
The FTC wrote that the companies attempted to avoid liability under COPPA, which regulates data collection from children under 13, by claiming “that there are no underage users on their platforms because children cannot create accounts.”
However, children and teens are known to be on social media, and the FTC wrote that companies “should not ignore this reality.”
The report found that teens’ accounts were treated the same as adults’ by most companies, putting their privacy and mental health at risk, the report said.
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