The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report this Thursday, where he stated that Social media giants engaged in “widespread surveillance” of their users to make money from your personal information.
“The report exposes how social media and video streaming companies collect massive amounts of personal data from Americans and They sell them for billions of dollars a year“said the FTC chairwoman, Lina Khanin a statement.
This document is based on consultations that were carried out almost four years ago, and involves nine companies. In this way, it was discovered that they collected large amounts of data, sometimes through third parties, and that they could indefinitely retain the information collected about users and non-users of their platforms.
“The failure of several companies to adequately protect children and adolescents online is especially worrying“Khan added, who also maintained that these practices exposed the affected people to potential for identity theft or harassment and threatened their freedoms.
The findings were based on responses to requests sent in late 2020 to companies such as Goal, YouTube, Snap, Amazon, ByteDancethe parent company of TikTokand Xformerly known as Twitter.
The report found that data collection practices were “woefully inadequate” and that some companies did not delete all the data that users asked them to delete.
The advertising industry’s response
The FTC noted that the business models, which typically involve targeted advertising, encouraged the mass collection of user data.
In turn, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) responded that Internet users understand that targeted ads are necessary to access online services free of charge and assured that his group “vehemently” supports a comprehensive national data privacy law.
“We are disappointed with the FTC’s continued characterization of the digital advertising industry as engaging in ‘massive commercial surveillance,'” IAB Executive Director Jeff Bezos said in response to the report. David Cohen.
He added: “Nothing could be further from the truth, as countless studies have shown that consumers understand the value exchange and welcome the opportunity to access free or highly subsidized content and services.”
Source: Ambito
