FTC Says Social Media Platforms Engage in 'Vast Surveillance' of Users

ITT: omg how other people don't see what I, a very smart and superior person who browses technology communities, have known for years
we should be celebrating that privacy issues are gaining more and more mainstream coverage.
- No one cares about this stuff but techies/Lemmy. Regular people don't care, like at all. They know tech companies do this stuff but if convenience>privacy, most people take the former every time to make life easier. Data privacy is not a tangeable thing in most people's minds.
  There would have to be some sort of cataslismic event to wake people up enough for people to do anything meaningful. I don't know what that would be, but I hope someone figures that out sooner rather than later.
  
  I don't think some mass "waking up" event is going to occur, but every time another headline about it shows up, it gets more difficult to ignore or not care about it. and every time someone who's on the fence about the issue will pay more attention to it, and perhaps use the offending platform less. baby steps.
  besides, I wouldn't say people don't care, they do when they get offered a choice: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/96-of-us-users-opt-out-of-app-tracking-in-ios-14-5-analytics-find/
  
  I read this and ask "What is your intention with this post?" What is gained if everyone is this jaded?
  
  I don't think this is true. Most people do care, in my anecdotal experience. I am not in tech circles. It is not a niche thing to be concerned about these days.
- Wow you're so smarmt

That's literally the sales pitch to investors, and has been for decades.

We need you Lina Khan. We need you, but stronger, faster, better. Let's fucking go.

Yeah, no shit!

In other news, the sky is blue.

Don't forget their 1427 trusted data partners!
- Essential.
- But it's their legitimate interest! ^Whatever ^that ^means

FTC says water is wet.
Edit: in all seriousness, it’s good that the FTC is talking about this, and it’ll be even better if it does something to combat it.

This is why I’m slowly migrating to the Fediverse.
Fuck social media companies.
- We're watching you too.
  Now, entertain us, we are bored.
  
  Yep, all they gotta do is well, very little.
- Well, the Fediverse isn't any more private, but at least it doesn't care much about your data. That said, any company could come and harvest all of that data if it wanted since it's open.
  The Fediverse isn't the final step here.
  
  I understand that, but it's more about the targeted advertisements, sponsored posts, etc. Just give me my goddamn content and leave me alone LOL

I like that someone in a position of authority is talking about this.

Yeah no shit.

It is fine to have casual knowledge of or a hunch about something, but far better to have the research and analysis to prove it.

They don't say.

NO. REALLY?

Kahn!

So this is why I switched to the fediverse. But to be honest, I have no idea if someone does things like that here or not. All my posts are public to everyone and machine readable. The only thing which would prevent someone of survailing users on the fediverse is it's very small scale. It is probably just not worth the effort.

Rule #1: anybody who can get you to give them your information of likes, dislikes just about anything will sell it to other people, or use it for their own sales to you.
Rule #2: If anyone has any reason to make you accept terms and conditions and there's any chance that they you may want to sue them in future, they're going to slip in a binding arbitration clause unless it is legally difficult for them to do so.
Wake up FTC it's not just social media it's deeply embedded everywhere in commerce and society and it needs to be addressed RFN.

Allow me to reveal my age by saying… No, duh!!!
- Eat my shorts
  
  NOT!!

In idiom meta for this scenario, most Lemmy users are what would be considered 'the choir'

Gotta wonder why they're saying this now? What's the agenda?
- The new-ish Federal Trade Commission head has been making a push to work on quite a few projects for the past couple of years. They have a very small resources and man-power compared to the war chests of multibillion dollar companies, but recently, somehow managed to bring charges against Google as a monopoly. This in my opinion is a good thing. I consider myself a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. I don’t like how our government seems to take the money of these companies and turn a blind eye as they do what they want in pursuit of the almighty dollar. I support her endeavors working for the interests of the majority of people and not those few with the most money.
  
  I don’t like how our government seems to take the money of these companies and turn a blind eye as they do what they want in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
  What country do you live in?
  Because in the US, the government gives money to corpos. That's how the entire regime works lol
  Politicians take donations sure but that's not the government. That's private regime whores living off corporate cash while handing out state aid Boeing intel and tech companies among many other parasites.
- Have you considered that the answers you seek may be in the article?
- Lina Khan actually takes action against companies unlike many of her predecessors.
- Getting as much done as they can before the election in case Trump wins, I think

anti-Social ones. this all public btw.

Remember, when Western companies violate privacy that is okay.
When non-Western companies do it, that's bad.
- I disagree. It's bad when anyone does it.
  
  I agree. I was being very sarcastic and didn't put the traditional /s.
  The US freaked out over TikTok harvesting private data yet barely shrugs at how US companies are routinely harvest private data and sell it.

Holy shit! For real?.....

And?