Agency wants social networks to reveal how they collect information

The United States Federal Trade Commission urged the tech giants of Silicon Valley, including Facebook, Amazon, YouTube (from Google) and Twitter to reveal how they collect information from users.

In a statement, the US federal agency said it was looking for information “on how social networks and streaming collect, use, track, estimate or extract personal information [dos utilizadores] and establish demographic data ”.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also trying to understand how these technological giants determine which ads and content that are targeted and recommended to specific consumers.

The use of algorithms and the “analysis of data and personal information” of users is also another issue that intrigues this committee, since there is a growing concern in understanding how social networks “feed” users and how they “Practices affect children and adolescents”.

“There has never been an industry capable of overseeing and monitoring so much of our personal lives,” claimed three of the five FTC commissioners in a joint statement, which is why the study will allow “to lift the veil on social media companies and streaming on video ”so you can“ study carefully ”.

However, it is not yet certain that these requests for information will later be converted into legal proceedings, however, this federal agency launched, in unison with several US states, lawsuits against Facebook for practices that violate the rules of competitiveness. In this context, the Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America has asked the Department of Justice to dismantling the social network through the sale of WhatsApp and Instagram.

In addition to the company co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, also YouTube – which is owned by Google – Twitter, Amazon, ByteDance – owner of the popular social network TikTok – Reddit, Discord and Snap – owns Snapchat – are referred to in this information request.