EPIC, Coalition Back FTC’s Move to Bar Meta From Monetizing Children’s Data

EPIC, the Center for Digital Democracy, Fairplay, US PIRG, and 30 other organizations today sent a letter to the FTC supporting the Commission’s efforts to modify and strengthen its 2020 privacy order against Meta. The letter reinforces the Commission’s authority to crack down on Meta’s continuing violations of the FTC’s 2012 and 2020 orders against the company, which themselves resulted from earlier widespread privacy violations by Facebook.

The letter emphasizes that the Commission’s proposed prohibition on monetizing minors’ data is necessary to address the unique privacy vulnerabilities of minors. The letter also explains that the order modification is necessary and appropriate because Meta is “unable or unwilling to safeguard user data in accordance with the Commission’s orders or by following the law.”

EPIC regularly files comments with the FTC regarding business practices that violate privacy rights and advocates for strong data protection safeguards, including privacy protections for children. In 2009, EPIC and coalition partners brought an FTC complaint concerning Facebook’s privacy settings that led to the Commission’s first consent decree with Facebook. EPIC filed numerous FTC complaints targeting Facebook’s abusive data practices in the years after and challenged the inadequacy of the Commission’s 2019 consent decree in federal court.