FTC Seeks to Prevent Meta From Monetizing Data of Users Under 18

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) aims to prohibit Meta from profiting from data collected from users under 18, after Facebook was found to have violated the agency’s 2020 privacy order by misleading parents about control over their children’s communication via Messenger Kids.

Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, warned that repeated breaches of privacy promises have endangered young users.

Meta responded by stating that it has implemented an industry-leading privacy program, and accused the FTC of using a political stunt to undermine Congress’s authority over industry-wide standards.

The company wrote, 

“Today, in what could only be described as a political stunt, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused us of not adequately protecting people’s privacy based on events that occurred and were disclosed years ago and an assessment which looked at just the first six months of a 20-year agreement. None of these issues warrant the drastic changes the FTC is seeking just three years into our decades-long agreement–and that the FTC lacks unilateral authority to impose. We have not violated the agreement and operate an industry-leading privacy program.

“The timing is striking. These events occurred years ago, and we continuously update the FTC, yet today’s action comes without any opportunity for us to address their concerns. This action was brought just before an independent assessor was scheduled to update them on our compliance work and program enhancements, we made over the past two years, yet the FTC chose to proceed without waiting to hear the results of that work.

“The action also comes after the Commission lost its bipartisan membership, and extraordinarily, even one of the remaining Democratic FTC Commissioners has already publicly questioned the FTC’s authority for the relief it is seeking.  We are focused on working productively with the agency to protect people’s privacy, but such gamesmanship suggests an agency more focused on getting headlines than protecting Americans’ privacy.”

The FTC’s proposed changes would prevent Meta from monetizing data collected from underage users, as well as introducing expanded limitations on facial recognition technology use and additional user protection requirements.

Investors King understands that the company is also under investigation for allegations that it misled parents about communication control via Messenger Kids from late 2017 to mid-2019.

This marks the third time the FTC has taken action against Meta over privacy concerns. Notably, Meta was fined $400 million by Ireland’s data privacy regulator last year for mishandling children’s data on Instagram.