FTC Proposes Tightening 2020 Privacy Order on Meta

U.S. Federal Trade Commission Wednesday accused Meta's Facebook of misleading parents about protections for children, in breach of a 2019 agreement on privacy, and proposed tightening the order.

Specifically, the FTC said Facebook misled parents about how much control they had over who their children had contact with in the Messenger Kids app and was deceptive about how much access app developers had to users' private data.

The FTC's proposed changes include barring Facebook from making money off data collected on users under age 18, including in its virtual reality business. It would also face expanded limitation on using facial recognition technology.

The action on Wednesday is the first step in the process of changing the order. Facebook will have 30 days to answer. The company can appeal any commission decision to an appeals court.

The FTC has twice before settled with Facebook for privacy violations.

The first was in 2012. Facebook agreed in 2019 to pay a record $5 billion fine to resolve allegations it had violated the 2012 consent order by misleading users about how much control they had over their personal data. That order was finalized in 2020.