FTC Seeks to Ban Meta From Monetizing Data of Kids Under 18; Company Slams Move as ‘Political Stunt’
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor The FTC alleges Meta failed to comply with a 2020 privacy order — and as such, the agency wants to impose new restrictions on the social giant, including prohibiting Facebook, Instagram and its other services from monetizing data from users under 18.
The FTC also is proposing to prohibit Meta from releasing new or modified products, services or features without “written confirmation” from the third-party assessor overseeing its privacy programs.
Under the 20-year settlement with the FTC (reached in 2019 and approved the following year) Meta agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine and to submit to new oversight by the commission.
That was to settle claims that the company violated a 2012 FTC order “by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.” According to an announcement Wednesday by the FTC, Meta “has failed to fully comply with the [2020] order, misled parents about their ability to control with whom their children communicated through its Messenger Kids app, and misrepresented the access it provided some app developers to private user data.” The FTC also alleges that Meta violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
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