Meta Platforms Inc. META has opposed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposal to modify a 2020 privacy agreement. The company has justified its stance by highlighting its voluntary disclosure of technical glitches in the Messenger Kids app.
What Happened: In a fling on Thursday, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, contested the FTC’s move to revise the 2020 privacy settlement. The company noted that it had voluntarily disclosed two technical errors in the Messenger Kids app to the FTC in July 2019, reported Reuters.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company also stated that it had invested $5.5 billion in its privacy program and related initiatives.
The 2020 settlement, under scrutiny, includes a ban on profiting from minors’ data and an expansion of restrictions on facial recognition technology. The FTC intends to tighten the settlement terms, accusing Meta of misleading parents about children’s protection.
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Despite Meta’s objections, a U.S. appeals court ruled in March that the FTC could proceed with its investigation into Facebook’s privacy practices. Meta had previously paid a $5 billion fine and agreed to various safeguards.
Meta, which has refuted allegations of misleading parents about privacy risks, filed a lawsuit against the FTC in November, challenging the agency’s dual role as an investigative and adjudicative body.
Why It Matters: This latest development is part of a series of legal battles Meta has been embroiled in over its privacy practices. Earlier in March, a U.S. court rejected Meta’s request to postpone the FTC’s re-evaluation of alleged privacy violations within its Facebook division.
In a separate incident, Meta was accused of snooping on user traffic data from Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon to gain a competitive edge. Last year, Facebook Ireland was found guilty of a user privacy breach between 2010 and 2020 by a Dutch court. This was followed by another lawsuit in the EU, where the tech giant was penalized for another data privacy breach.
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