Social Media Users Lack Control Over Data Used by AI, US FTC Says

DA Gadgets September 20, 2024 social

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Social
media
companies
collect,
share
and
process
vast
troves
of
information
about
their
users
while
offering
little
transparency
or
control,
including
over
how
it
is
used
by
systems
incorporating
artificial
intelligence,
the

US
Federal
Trade
Commission
said
in
a
report
released
on
Thursday.

The
report
analyzed
how

Meta
Platforms,
ByteDance’s

TikTok,
Amazon’s
gaming
platform
Twitch,
and
others
manage
user
data,
concluding
that
data
management
and
retention
policies
at
many
of
the
companies
were
“woefully
inadequate.”

YouTube,
social
media
platform

X,
Snap,
Discord
and

Reddit
were
also
included
in
the
FTC
report,
though
its
findings
were
anonymized
and
did
not
reveal
specific
companies’
practices.
YouTube
is
owned
by
Alphabet’s
Google.

Discord,
a
communications
platform,
said
the
report
lumps
very
different
business
models
into
one
category,
and
that
it
did
not
offer
advertising
at
the
time
the
study
was
conducted.

An
X
spokesperson
said
the
report
is
based
on
practices
from
2020
when
the
site
was
known
as
Twitter,
which
X
has
since
improved.

“X
takes
user
data
privacy
seriously
and
ensures
users
are
aware
of
the
data
they
are
sharing
with
the
platform
and
how
it
is
being
used,
while
providing
them
with
the
option
of
limiting
the
data
that
is
collected
from
their
accounts,”
the
spokesperson
said.

Only
about
1
percent
of
X’s
current
U.S.
users
are
between
ages
13
and
17,
the
spokesperson
said.

Other
companies
did
not
immediately
reply
to
requests
for
comment.

Social
media
companies
gather
data
through
tracking
technologies
used
in
online
advertising
and
buying
information
from
data
brokers,
and
other
means,
the
FTC
said.

“While
lucrative
for
the
companies,
these
surveillance
practices
can
endanger
people’s
privacy,
threaten
their
freedoms,
and
expose
them
to
a
host
of
harms,
from
identity
theft
to
stalking,”
said
FTC
Chair
Lina
Khan.

Data
privacy,
particularly
for
kids
and
teens,
has
been
a
hot-button
issue.
The
US
House
of
Representatives
is
considering
bills
passed
by
the
Senate
in
July
aimed
at
addressing
social
media’s
effects
on
younger
users.
And
Meta
recently
rolled
out
teen
accounts
that
incorporate
enhanced
parental
controls.

Meanwhile,
Big
Tech
companies
have
been
scrambling
to
acquire
sources
of
data
to
train
their
emerging
artificial-intelligence
technologies.
The
data
deals
are
infrequently
disclosed
and
often
involve
private
content
locked
behind
paywalls
and
login
screens,
with
scant
or
no
notice
to
the
users
who
posted
it.

In
addition
to
collecting
data
about
how
users
engage
with
their
services,
most
of
the
companies
the
FTC
reviewed
collected
users’
age
and
gender
or
guessed
it
based
on
other
information.
Some
also
gathered
information
on
users’
income,
education
and
family
status,
the
FTC
said.

Companies
gathered
data
on
individuals
who
did
not
use
their
services,
and
some
were
not
able
to
identify
all
of
the
ways
they
collected
and
used
data,
the
FTC
said.

Advertising
industry
groups
criticised
the
report
on
Thursday,
saying
that
consumers
recognize
the
value
of
ad-supported
services.

“We
are
disappointed
with
the
FTC’s
continued
characterization
of
the
digital
advertising
industry
as
engaged
in
‘mass
commercial
surveillance,'”
said
David
Cohen,
chief
executive
of
the
Interactive
Advertising
Bureau,
an
advertising
and
marketing
group
which
counts
Snapchat,
TikTok
and
Amazon
among
its
members.