FTC Bans Meta from Monetizing Children’s Data, Protecting Families Everywhere
Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to news that the Federal Trade Commission is proposing changes to the agency’s 2020 privacy order with Facebook, prohibiting the firm from monetizing any data it collects from children.
“In banning Meta from monetizing children’s data, the FTC is showing once again that consent decrees are not suggestions — especially when kids’ well-being is on the line,” said Krista Brown, Senior Policy Analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Over, and over, and over again, Meta has shown itself willing to break the law and sacrifice users’ safety and privacy for profits. The FTC’s proposed changes to its 2020 privacy order take on this dangerous business model directly, protecting kids and families.”
Meta, previously Facebook, has been fined dozens of times for privacy violations, with a $400 million fine as recently as this past fall specifically for its harvesting and abuse of children’s data. Meta has also been caught allowing at least 13 million child sex abuse images to be shared across its platforms, misleading parents about security controls, and targeting children as young as 6 with advertising. It has previously been fined billions of dollars for regular abuse of user privacy.
See more in Economic Liberties’ “Big Tech Abuse Tracker.”
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.