Data Privacy at Facebook, Amazon and Other Major Social Media Platforms is “Woefully Inadequate”: FTC

Online habits of children and teens are often tracked and monetized by social media companies, without adequate protections or parents’ consent.

Many of the world’s largest social media companies are tracking and collecting data on everything individuals do both online and off, with the habits of teenagers being the most vulnerable to online manipulation, according to federal regulators.

A new report (PDF) was issued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this month, which set out to examine data privacy at social media and online video sites, in the hope of gaining a better understanding of the industry’s often hidden data collection practices and algorithms. However, the agency warns that the data privacy practices are “woefully inadequate.”

In 2020, the FTC issued orders to nine online companies, directing them to file special reports with the commission that outline the data collecting habits for social media platforms. At the time, the companies included under the order were known as:

• Amazon
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Snap
• ByteDance
• Discord
• Reddit
• WhatsApp

While some of these companies have changed their names, each remains operational and continues to actively collect user data.

Using the information provided by the companies under the FTC’s orders, as well as other publicly available materials, the FTC determined that these companies collect user data in unexpected ways, including when users are not actively visiting the companies sites.

The companies were found to often sell this data to other advertising services, unbeknownst to users. They also leverage this data to fuel the artificial intelligence (AI) systems that power their platforms, while failing to provide adequate protections for the data, especially that of children and teens using their sites.

“As many of these firms pivot to developing and deploying AI, while continuing to shroud their practices in secrecy and implementing minimal safeguards to protect users, we must not continue to let the foxes guard the henhouse,” said Samuel Levin, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection in a preface to the report. “Protecting users — especially children and teens — requires clear baseline protections that apply across the board.”

According to the FTC’s report, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) shields children under the age of 13 from numerous data abuses by prohibiting them from creating accounts. However, this protection does not extend to teenagers aged 13 and older, who are not covered by the COPPA Rule. As a result, many social media platforms impose no restrictions on teen accounts, collecting data from them in the same manner as they would from adults.

This exposes teens to the same AI algorithms that social media companies use to engage and market to adults, occasionally presenting them with content that may negatively influence their self-perception or views of others.

Data Privacy Recommendations

The FTC highlighted many negative effects from companies collecting these vast amounts of data, including algorithms prioritizing harmful content, privacy invasions and poor data retention and deletion practices. For these reasons, the study noted a handful of recommendations from federal regulators.

First, it was recommended that Congress enact comprehensive privacy legislation to limit surveillance and give customers rights, such as ways to exclude their data from collection and to delete any data that has already been collected.

The FTC also recommended that safeguards be implemented around the sale of personal information to advertisers, preventing targeted online ad campaigns. In addition, it indicated that users should be made more aware of what data has been collected on them, and they should be put in control of how that data is used.

Finally, the agency indicated that social media sites should do more to protect children from the negative effects of data collection, including targeted ad campaigns and viewing of harmful content.

Concerns about the data privacy protections have been highlighted by growing evidence of widespread teen social media addictions in recent years, with the U.S. Surgeon General recently highlighting the effects of social media on young people’s mental health, and encouraging everything from social media age restrictions to required mental health warnings on social media sites.

“As Child and Teen use of social media increases, so do the concerns regarding such use and the potential harms to Children and Teens,” the report’s authors state. “There is the concern that adults will use social media to exploit Children or Teens. Another serious concern is the potential effect of social media use on mental health; in fact, a 2019 study found that adolescents spending more than three hours per day on social media was associated with increased mental health problems.”