The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday accused Meta’s Facebook of misleading parents about child protection and proposed tightening existing privacy agreements, including a ban on making money from minors’ data.
Specifically, the FTC said Facebook misled parents about the extent of control over who their children connect with in the Messenger Kids app and was deceptive about the extent to which app developers have access to users’ private data, in violation of a 2019 privacy agreement Facebook reached with the FTC.
The FTC’s proposed privacy tightening measures include a ban on Facebook making money from collecting data from users under the age of 18, including in its virtual reality business. It will also face greater restrictions on the use of face recognition technology.
Meta shares were down 2% on Wednesday on the news. Meta, which also runs Instagram and contributes more than 98 percent of its revenue from digitally targeted ads, relies on users’ personal data.
Smearing TikTok
Meta responded by shifting the focus to rival TikTok, arguing that the FTC’s move was “political grandstanding” and that “we will argue our case and expect to win.” Meta said.
Although Meta has the world’s largest social network, it is competing with TikTok for the attention of younger users after the short-form video app became popular among U.S. teens a few years ago.
The FTC’s move Wednesday is its first step toward revising its 2019 privacy agreement. Facebook will have 30 days to respond. The company can also appeal any commission decision to an appeals court. The FTC has twice previously settled with Facebook over privacy violations. The first was in 2012. 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a record $5 billion fine to settle allegations that the company violated a 2012 consent decree for misleading users about the extent of control over their personal data.
