FTC: Facebook misled parents, failed to guard kids’ privacy

May 3, 2023, 10:12 AM | Updated: 10:42 am

U.S. regulators say Facebook misled parents and failed to protect the privacy of children using its Messenger Kids app, including misrepresenting the access it provided to app developers to private user data.

As a result, The Federal Trade Commision on Wednesday proposed sweeping changes to a 2020 privacy order with Facebook — now called Meta — that would prohibit it from profiting from data it collects on users under 18. This would include data collected through its virtual-reality products. The FTC said the company has failed to fully comply with the 2020 order.

Meta would also be subject to other limitations, including with its use of face-recognition technology and be required to provide additional privacy protections for its users.

“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.”

Meta called the announcement a “political stunt.”

“Despite three years of continual engagement with the FTC around our agreement, they provided no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory. Let’s be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industry-wide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil,” Meta said in a prepared statement. “We have spent vast resources building and implementing an industry-leading privacy program under the terms of our FTC agreement. We will vigorously fight this action and expect to prevail.”

Facebook launched Messenger Kids in 2017, pitching it as a way for children to chat with family members and friends approved by their parents. The app doesn’t give kids separate Facebook or Messenger accounts. Rather, it works as an extension of a parent’s account, and parents get controls, such as the ability to decide with whom their kids can chat.

At the time, Facebook said Messenger Kids wouldn’t show ads or collect data for marketing, though it would collect some data it said was necessary to run the service.

But child-development experts raised immediate concerns.

In early 2018, a group of 100 experts, advocates and parenting organizations contested Facebook’s claims that the app was filling a need kids had for a messaging service. The group included nonprofits, psychiatrists, pediatricians, educators and the children’s music singer Raffi Cavoukian.

“Messenger Kids is not responding to a need — it is creating one,” the letter said. “It appeals primarily to children who otherwise would not have their own social media accounts.” Another passage criticized Facebook for “targeting younger children with a new product.”

Facebook, in response to the letter, said at the time that the app “helps parents and children to chat in a safer way,” and emphasized that parents are “always in control” of their kids’ activity.

The FTC now says this has not been the case. The 2020 privacy order, which required Facebook to pay a $5 billion fine, required an independent assessor to evaluate the company’s privacy practices. The FTC said the assessor “identified several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook’s privacy program.”

The FTC also said Facebook, from late 2017 until 2019, “misrepresented that parents could control whom their children communicated with through its Messenger Kids product.”

“Despite the company’s promises that children using Messenger Kids would only be able to communicate with contacts approved by their parents, children in certain circumstances were able to communicate with unapproved contacts in group text chats and group video calls,” the FTC said.

As part of the proposed changes to the FTC’s 2020 order, Meta would also be required to pause launching new products and services without “written confirmation from the assessor that its privacy program is in full compliance” with the order.

United States News

FILE - Solomon Peña, center, a Republican candidate for New Mexico House District 14, is taken int...

Associated Press

Federal grand jury charges ex-GOP candidate with shootings on lawmakers’ homes

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A failed political candidate has been indicted on federal charges including interference with the electoral process in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque, according to a grand jury indictment that was unsealed Wednesday. The indictment filed in U.S. District […]

15 hours ago

Associated Press

Authorities identify 4 missing, 1 dead after Alaska charter boat found partially submerged

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday released the names of four people who remain missing after the charter fishing boat they were on was found partially submerged in southeast Alaska. The recovered body of a fifth person has also been identified. Alaska State Troopers identified those missing as Danielle Agcaoili, 53, of Waipahu, Hawaii; […]

15 hours ago

Associated Press

Court: No lawsuit immunity for Michigan official who had rifle during online meeting

DETROIT (AP) — A lawsuit can go forward against a Michigan official who flashed a rifle during a public meeting over video conference, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. Patricia MacIntosh is suing Ron Clous, alleging he tried to silence her right to free speech when he displayed the rifle during a 2021 meeting of […]

15 hours ago

In this still image captured by Las Vegas police officer Tierney Tomburo's body camera, 27-year-old...

Associated Press

Las Vegas police video shows moment officer was shot during traffic stop

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas police lapel videos played Wednesday during a public review of evidence in a September 2022 shooting showed the moment an officer was shot and wounded during a pre-dawn traffic stop and the dramatic aftermath as her partner rushed to her side to apply a tourniquet. Officer Tierney Tomburo, 24 […]

15 hours ago

FILE - Sycamore School students in participate in Relay for Life with a Relay Recess Wednesday, Jun...

Associated Press

California lawmakers advance bill to cool down outside areas at schools

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As California grapples with how to deal with heat waves made more intense by climate change, schools in the state may soon have to come up with plans for cooling down outside play areas by planting more trees and replacing surfaces like asphalt that swelter on hot days. The state Senate […]

15 hours ago

Associated Press

Preliminary autopsy determines escaped Ohio inmate found in river died of drowning

HENDERSON, Ky. (AP) — A convicted murderer whose body was found floating in a river several days after he and another inmate escaped from a northwest Ohio prison died from drowning, according to preliminary autopsy results released Wednesday. Bradley Gillespie, 50, and James Lee, 47, were reported missing May 23 from the Allen Oakwood Correctional […]

15 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

DAY & NIGHT AIR CONDITIONING, HEATING AND PLUMBING

Here are the biggest tips to keep your AC bill low this summer

PHOENIX — In Arizona during the summer, having a working air conditioning unit is not just a pleasure, but a necessity. No one wants to walk from their sweltering car just to continue to be hot in their home. As the triple digits hit around the Valley and are here to stay, your AC bill […]

...

SANDERSON FORD

Thank you to Al McCoy for 51 years as voice of the Phoenix Suns

Sanderson Ford wants to share its thanks to Al McCoy for the impact he made in the Valley for more than a half-decade.

...

Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

Company looking for oldest air conditioner and wants to reward homeowner with new one

Does your air conditioner make weird noises or a burning smell when it starts? If so, you may be due for an AC unit replacement.

FTC: Facebook misled parents, failed to guard kids’ privacy