NEW YORK: A report released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday reveals that social media companies are amassing and processing enormous amounts of user data while providing minimal transparency and control over its use, especially concerning artificial intelligence systems.
The FTC’s analysis focused on major players like Meta Platforms, TikTok (owned by ByteDance), and Twitch (part of Amazon), finding their data management and retention practices to be “woefully inadequate.”
Platforms such as YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Snap, Discord, and Reddit were also examined, though specific findings were anonymized. YouTube is a subsidiary of Alphabet’s Google.
According to the FTC, these companies utilize tracking technologies in online advertising, purchase data from brokers, and employ various other methods to collect user information.
FTC Chair Lina Khan emphasized, “While these surveillance practices are profitable for companies, they pose significant risks to individuals’ privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to dangers like identity theft and stalking.”
Data privacy, especially for minors, has become a pressing issue, with the U.S. House of Representatives currently reviewing bills aimed at mitigating social media’s impact on younger users. In response, Meta has introduced enhanced parental controls for its teen accounts.
Simultaneously, Big Tech firms are racing to acquire data for training their artificial intelligence technologies. These data deals are often opaque, frequently involving private content that is not easily accessible to users, with little to no notification of the data’s use.
The FTC report also notes that many of the companies reviewed collected demographic information such as age and gender, often inferred from other data. Some firms even gathered information about individuals who never interacted with their services, and several could not fully account for all the ways they collected and utilized data.
