Experts say it is scary how much personal information is being tracked online, especially when it comes to kids, according to a report from the Federal Trade Commission.
Companies are collecting and using data from people using their platforms, experts say. They describe the data gathering as dangerous and alarming.
ODU Professor Sachin Shetty, who's been studying technology for decades, is concerned about the amount of data being collected by the big social media companies and other companies that track your information online.
“Everything I do in an online space is being tracked and is recorded and is retained and shared and disseminated,” said Shetty. “They seem to be collecting way more data than needed for future purpose and for future monetization.”
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The report is based on responses from nine of the largest social media and video streaming services: Amazon.com, Inc., which owns the gaming platform Twitch; Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.); YouTube LLC; Twitter, Inc. (now X Corp.); Snap Inc.; ByteDance Ltd., which owns the video-sharing platform TikTok; Discord Inc.; Reddit, Inc.; and WhatsApp Inc.
It stated that in some cases, the companies will sell the collected data from users to known and unknown third parties.
The report found that companies also make money by displaying advertisements on their website that target people based off the data that's been collected.
“The report lays out how social media and video streaming companies harvest an enormous amount of Americans’ personal data and monetize it to the tune of billions of dollars a year,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “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. Several firms’ failure to adequately protect kids and teens online is especially troubling. The report’s findings are timely, particularly as state and federal policymakers consider legislation to protect people from abusive data practices.”
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Shetty says this is particularly concerning for children accessing these social media and video streaming services.
“Children are very impressionable, so you’re using that platform to feed impressionable humans information that is not going through a parent filter, and so that’s a concern,” said Shetty.
The report outlines how all the companies operate differently.
We reached out to all of the companies for comment. However, we've only heard back from Discord so far. The company's comment is as follows:
“The FTC report’s intent and focus on consumers is an important step. However, the report lumps very different models into one bucket and paints a broad brush, which might confuse consumers and portray some platforms, like Discord, inaccurately. The report itself says 'the business model varies little across these nine companies.' Discord’s business model is very different - we are a real-time communications platform with strong user privacy controls and no feeds for endless scrolling. At the time of the study, Discord did not run a formal digital advertising service, which is a central pillar of the report. We look forward to sharing more about Discord and how we protect our users.”
— Kate Sheerin, Discord's Head of US/Canada Public Policy
The study found some companies are increasingly relying on hidden pixels and similar technologies embedded on other websites to track our behavior.
“It’s not just the social media platform, but it’s everything that you do, anytime you type for something or search for something,” said Shetty.
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The study found that in some cases, the companies could not even identify all the data they collected or the third parties they shared it with.
“The lack of transparency, that is a big issue, and that’s because we just don’t have a strong privacy law,” said Shetty.
The FTC suggests that Congress pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation and want companies to limit data collection.
“They’re getting much better at knowing us—not just our demographics, but knowing our behavior,” said Shetty.
