Investigation into Personal Data Collection Practices on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok
"User Personal Data Collection and Surveillance Levels Beyond Imagination"
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on the 19th (local time) that global social networking services (SNS) and streaming services have been conducting user surveillance and collecting personal information beyond imagination.
On the same day, the FTC revealed the results of an investigation into the collection and use of user personal information on 13 platforms operated by nine leading companies in the SNS and streaming markets, including Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter), making this claim.
According to the report, most platforms generated revenue by providing personal information for targeted advertising aimed at specific users, including information on minors. These companies also purchased information about non-users through personal information brokers and scraped information from accounts linked to other services. Personal information included users' age, gender, native language, education and income levels, and marital status.
FTC Chair Lina Khan stated in a press release, "These surveillance practices may guarantee profitability for companies but put people's privacy at risk, threaten freedom, and cause numerous harms ranging from identity theft to stalking." She added, "It is particularly concerning that many companies fail to adequately protect children and adolescents online."
While the FTC did not disclose individual results for the companies investigated, it criticized that "self-regulation by companies has failed." Contrary to the repeated claims by most platform companies that they block users under 13 years old, minors were openly using SNS and having their personal information collected.
Related SNS companies immediately responded. Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda explained, "YouTube enforces the strictest privacy policies in the industry. We do not sell users' personal information," adding, "We do not show targeted ads to users under 18 or viewers of children's content." Kate Sirin, Head of Public Policy for North America at Discord, also commented, "The FTC report tends to generalize by grouping very different social media models together."
As voices warning against the harms of SNS grow worldwide, discussions on age restrictions for SNS are expected to intensify. Previously, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans to introduce federal laws restricting SNS use for youths aged 14 to 16. If legislated as planned, Australia would become the first country to impose age restrictions on SNS at the national level. Meta has also announced plans to switch Instagram accounts of users under 18 to private by default.
Jacqueline Ford, attorney at the FTC's Privacy and Identity Protection Division, emphasized, "Teenagers are not adults, so experiences should be designed appropriate to their age, and a higher level of protection is needed for data collection and sharing compared to adults." The New York Times (NYT) noted, "Big Tech is under intense scrutiny for personal data abuse, and SNS and smartphones are criticized for harming the mental health of adolescents and children," adding, "There have been several proposals for stricter privacy and child protection, but most legislative attempts to regulate Big Tech have failed so far."
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