What a surprise, the criminal enterprise formerly known as Facebook™ is is facing sanctions from the FTC for violating their 2020 consent agreement on user privacy.
This is not a surprise. Zuckerberg has been promising to go forth and sin no more on user privacy, and proving those promises to be lies, since about 2005.
The Federal Trade Commission proposed barring Meta Platforms from profiting off data it collects from young users, accusing the company of misleading parents and repeatedly violating a 2020 privacy order.
The FTC action Wednesday represents an unwelcome return to controversy for Meta and its major platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The company agreed in 2019 to pay a $5 billion civil penalty following a previous FTC investigation into its privacy practices.
“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement. “The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.”
The new allegations represent an aggressive move by the FTC, and the company vowed to contest them. Meta has 30 days to formally respond.
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Some lawmakers and President Biden have proposed restricting targeted advertising to children. The FTC action could limit Meta’s ability to do that but wouldn’t affect other companies.
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Some Meta critics characterized the FTC move as a long overdue response to a range of harms to kids caused by the company’s products.
“The FTC has rightly recognized Meta simply cannot be trusted with young people’s sensitive data and proposed a remedy in line with Meta’s long history of abuse of children,” said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, a nonprofit that advocates for children’s online privacy.
The agency press release, which specifically cited kids’ data from virtual reality as part of its proposed ban, came less than a month after Meta opened its Horizon Worlds metaverse to teens.
As part of the FTC’s proposed sanctions, Meta—which changed its name from Facebook in October 2021—would be prohibited from profiting from data it collects from users under 18. It would also be subject to other new limitations, including on its use of facial-recognition technology, and would be required to provide additional protections for users.
The proposal marks the third time the agency has taken action against the company for failing to protect users’ privacy. The FTC filed a complaint against Facebook in 2011, and obtained an order in 2012 barring the company from misrepresenting its privacy practices.
Meta is a habitual offender.
Mark Zuckerberg needs to be frog marched out of Facebook headquarters in handcuffs.
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