(AGENPARL) – Rome, 19 September 2024
Big social media and video streaming companies are engaging in extensive user surveillance, with lax privacy controls and inadequate safeguards for children and teens, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The document highlights how these companies are massively harvesting users’ personal data to monetize it, without providing adequate protections, especially for the most vulnerable segments of the population.
The report reveals that companies are accumulating data from multiple sources, including data brokers and inactive users on platforms, and storing it indefinitely. This raises concerns about data management and sharing, showing that many companies are not honoring users’ requests for deletion and do not offer effective tools to prevent their data from being used in automated systems, such as algorithms and artificial intelligence.
FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan stressed that these practices, while profitable for companies, “put people’s privacy at risk and expose them to dangers like identity theft and stalking.” The situation is especially dire for children and adolescents, who, according to research cited by the FTC, are subject to significant mental health damage due to intensive use of social media and digital technologies.
The report is based on investigations launched in 2020, involving nine major companies including Amazon (owner of Twitch), Meta (Facebook), YouTube, TikTok, Twitter (X), and Snapchat. According to the document, the business model of these companies, focused on collecting data for targeted advertising, creates conflicts with the protection of user privacy.
The FTC criticized the companies’ “disparate, inconsistent and inadequate” approach to privacy, urging them to implement stronger measures to protect young users and improve oversight of the data they collect.
