FTC: Social Media Sites Are ‘Vast Surveillance’ Operations

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report denouncing how social media companies collect and profit off user data, calling their practices a “vast surveillance” program.

“While lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identify theft to stalking,” says FTC Chair Lina M. Khan.

The investigation looked into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Reddit, SnapChat, TikTok, Twitter/X, Twitch, and YouTube. The FTC ordered them to provide information on their data collection policies in 2020, remarking that “it is alarming how little we know about companies that know so much about us.”

Four years later, the 129-page report highlights their failures to protect users from “abusive data practices,” particularly teens and children. Though these platforms appear free, users pay the price by forking over more personal data than they are likely aware of.

(Credit: FTC Report, A Look Behind the Screens)

“The status quo is unacceptable,” the report says. “The amount of data collected by large tech companies is simply staggering.” US adults spend more than six hours on these sites daily, according to the FTC.

Social media companies are collecting data on and off their platforms, for users and non-users. They “indefinitely retain troves of data” without giving the public any “meaningful control” over how it’s used. Even if you do not have an account with a particular platform, companies can purchase your data from third parties.

Increasingly, companies embed hidden pixels in other websites that track behavior by the click. The data collection extends beyond the basic demographic information, such as age, name, and location. It goes deeper, into marital status, annual income, personal interests, health conditions, and religious faith.

(Credit: FTC Report, A Look Behind the Screens)

The report finds the treatment of data from children and teens “especially troubling.” The social media sites did not report any additional data safeguards for these groups, and treat them largely as adults. Most claim not to have data from children because they do not allow those under 13 to create an account. The FTC says there is ample evidence that children are using these platforms, and the companies “should not ignore this reality.”

The FTC calls on Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation given the failures of these companies to regulate themselves over the past two decades. While they comply with stricter data collection policies in Europe, per General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), most companies reported that they do not extend these practices to American users.

“The report leaves no doubt that without significant action, the commercial surveillance ecosystem will only get worse,” says the FTC. “Our privacy cannot be the price we pay to accomplish ordinary basic daily activities, and responsible data practices should not put a business at a competitive disadvantage.”

Though LinkedIn was not included in the study, it, too trains AI models on user data without their consent.