Meta did not comply with a 2020 privacy order, says US FTC

Meta would be required to ensure compliance for any companies it merges with or acquires in the future.

Meta has found itself in hot soup as the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says the company failed to comply with a 2020 privacy order.

The competition watchdog said Meta "had repeatedly violated its privacy promises" and its "recklessness has put young users at risk”.

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According to a post by the FTC, this is the third time that Meta has violated privacy orders. The FTC had issued a 2012 order to Meta that prohibited the company from misleading customers about its privacy practices.

According to the watchdog, Meta violated that order within a few months of it being imposed, and engaged in "misrepresentations that helped fuel the Cambridge Analytica scandal".

In 2019, the FTC issued a second order that took effect in 2020. It required Meta to pay a fine of $5 billion and expanded upon the 2012 order by requiring Meta to "conduct a privacy review of every new or modified product, service, or practice before implementation and document its risk mitigation determinations".

The order also told Meta to implement more security tools for personal information, and imposed restrictions on the use of facial recognition and collection of telephone numbers.

After conducting a review with the help of an independent third party, the FTC has now determined that Meta has violated the 2020 order by allowing app developers access to private information, after promising they would stop doing so in 2019, when the order was first drafted.

In certain cases, Meta allowed third parties to access personal information until mid-2020. In addition, the FTC alleges that from late 2017 to mid-2019, the company misrepresented its parental control programme for Facebook Messenger.

Despite stating that children would only be allowed to talk to contacts that their parents have approved, there were several instances where children connected with unknown individuals in group text chats and group video calls.

Now the FTC is taking firm steps by proposing a new set of changes to the 2020 order, that will prohibit data collection from minors under the age of 18 across all of Meta's services including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others.

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The FTC said that Meta "could only collect and use such data to provide the services or for security purposes, and would be prohibited from monetizing this data or otherwise using it for commercial gain even after those users turn 18".

Another proposed change could see Meta seek approvals from an independent assessor before releasing any product or service. Without approval, they would be "prohibited from releasing new or modified products, services, or features".

Meta would be required to ensure compliance for any companies it merges with or acquires in the future.