The company that owns Facebook and Instagram, Meta, has been charged with failing to implement adequate parental controls by the top US data privacy authority.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) added that Meta should not be permitted to profit from the data of children.
“Facebook needs to answer for its failures,” it stated, adding that the company’s carelessness had put underage users in danger.
Meta retaliated, decrying the regulator’s action as a “political stunt” and asserting that it had exceeded its powers.
An independent review, according to the FTC, had uncovered “several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook’s privacy programme” that posed “substantial risks to the public.”
Users under the age of 13 were discovered to still be permitted to talk with contacts who had not been approved by their parents.
The regulator said that Meta broke its promise to revoke access to private data if customers failed to use third-party apps within the previous 90 days by continuing to grant it to them.
The FTC has suggested a number of initiatives, such as:
a strict restriction on the sale of data about children and teenagers under 18
a holdoff on the release of new items until it was determined that they complied with privacy laws fully
Future usage restrictions on facial recognition technologies. When using facial recognition technology in the future, Meta must inform users and get their permission first.
Andy Stone, a representative for Meta, responded by calling the action a “political stunt”.
He claimed that TikTok and other Chinese businesses are permitted to operate freely on American soil whereas Meta is being singled out.
Additionally, he charged FTC chair Lina Khan with alienating American business.
The FTC’s investigation into Cambridge Analytica’s theft of the personal information of tens of millions of Facebook users began in 2018.
The regulator has attempted to limit some of Big Tech’s authority. Companies like Meta, though, think they are being punished unfairly.
Despite three years of ongoing communication regarding our agreement with the FTC, Mr. Stone claimed that no opportunity to discuss this novel, completely unheard-of theory had been presented.
Contrarily, the FTC thinks Meta “has repeatedly violated its privacy promises” and calls for tougher measures to safeguard younger users.
