The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ban Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, from monetising children’s data and further limit its use of facial recognition technology.
The FTC’s proposal on Wednesday called for a blanket prohibition on Meta’s ability to commercialise data it collects from users aged 18 or younger, including via virtual reality products. It comes in response to what the FTC alleged were violations of an order issued in 2020 in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, said in a statement. “The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.”