The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took aim at the business models of some of the world’s largest companies, publishing a years-long study that decried technologies that have created “vast surveillance” networks that expose people to “a host of harms” and violate children’s privacy laws.
In its 129-page report, FTC staff accused companies including Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok of not “consistently prioritizing” user privacy, and instead focusing on efforts to feed data to advertising and artificial intelligence tools. The study was published after nearly four years of research, during which the agency issued orders to companies including Meta, Alphabet, X (Twitter), and Reddit, demanding information on how they collect and use people’s data.
