The Federal Trade Commission has issued an order requiring nine companies, including Facebook, TikTok and Twitter, to explain their data collection practices. The popular social media platforms included in the FTC's mandate have been given a little over one month to comply with the order. Over the past few months alone, the FTC has been busy putting a handful of tech companies under the spotlight, and not for positive reasons.
Last month, the FTC claimed the popular video-conferencing app Zoom had mislead uses over end-to-end encryption. Even more recently, the FTC confirmed it is now suing Facebook over “unlawful conduct” and, in particular, drew attention to the company's high-profile acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, even suggesting those purchases should be undone. While this latest FTC announcement once again includes Facebook, the social media company is not the only one mentioned.
According to the FTC, the focus of its recent order is directed towards nine companies, namely TikTok owner ByteDance, Facebook, Reddit, Snap Inc, Twitter, Amazon, Discord, YouTube and WhatsApp. The mentioned companies have been given 45 days to disclose how they collect and use personal information. In addition to how they determine the content that consumers see and how their practices affect younger users. By making potentially questionable data collection practices appear more transparent, the FTC order could help to educate consumers and prevent companies from taking advantage of them in the future.
Data Collection A Bigger Issue Than Ever
The issue and extent of personal data collection doesn't always arouse the suspicion of users and governing bodies, due to some companies managing to find ways to operate under the radar. However, that awareness radar has been expanding recently, drawing more attention to the importance of data collection, how it sometimes takes place, and the potential effects. One of the companies that has consistently been under a data spotlight in 2020 is TikTok. Back in July, the popular app was accused of collecting too much data. Following which, the app was reportedly bypassing security protocols to obtain user data.
While not all companies accused of such practices face legal repercussions, some have been hit with lawsuits in a few of the more serious cases. Google recently faced a lawsuit for its alleged involvement in harvesting biometric and personal data of children. Even if a company isn't mining the data of users directly, personal data can still be obtained by thrid-parties through a data breach. For example, an Instagram, TikTok and YouTube data breach reported in August is thought to have jeopardized the personal data of more than 200 million users. With more consumers becoming heavily dependent on technology during the pandemic, an increase in the attention on data, whether collected by Facebook, TikTok, or any other service, is likely to also increase.
Source: FTC