The FTC is now formally ordering a number of companies all behind the most popular social and video platforms to give an explanation as to how they use the particular treasure toves of data that they have been gathering from users. The formal order from the FTC was sent to ByteDance, Amazon, Facebook, Discord, WhatsApp, Reddit, Twitter, Snap, and YouTube. All of the companies were given a deadline of 45 days for the formal explanation.
FTC launches order for formal explanation
According to the article by TechCrunch, the FTC's main focus is on how these particular companies proceed to collect, to use, and also to present the personal information. The inquiry also includes their advertising as well as user engagement practices. This also includes how the practices affect both children and teens. Four of the known FTC commissioners all voted in favor of the official FTC order, with the known Commissioner Noah Joshua Philips dissenting the order.
According to the Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Rohin Chopra, and Christine S. Wilson in a released joint statement. The statement detailed that despite these company's own central role in everyones' lives, the particular decision that prominent platforms make when it comes to consumers as well as consumer data should still remain shrouded in security.
Statement notes the situation as 'alarming'
The statement continued saying policymakers as well as the public are all in the dark when it comes to social media as well as video streaming services do in order to capture as well as sell users' own data and attention. It was noted that it is alarming to know very little when it comes to companies that already know a great deal about its users.
The FTC's very own fact-finding mission is said to be the latest federal action in order to put the tech in its own crosshairs. This is following last week's very own news that the whole agency would then sue Facebook over certain antitrust violations reported in an earlier article by TechCrunch.
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FTC Act Section 6(b)
The new order was then issued under the known Section 6(b) of the official FTC Act as a particular study of the tech industry practices. It is also not coupled with any of the law enforcement action, but this does not particularly preclude the whole agency from actually pursuing the enforcement options along with what it is able to find.
Some time last year, the FTC signaled a much deeper interest into tech, particularly on certain antitrust issues. The agency had launched a certain purpose-built tech task force in order to monitor the acquisitions as well as other potential competition-crushing behavior that is said to raise red flags. Back in the early 2020, the official FTC had launched another extensive separate study in order to examine about a decade's worth of acquisitions all made by Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
