Social media companies collect, share and process vast troves of information about their users while offering little transparency or control, including over how it is used by systems incorporating artificial intelligence,

A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff report has found that social media and video streaming companies have been engaging in widespread user surveillance, particularly of children and teens, with insufficient privacy protections and earning billions of dollars annually by monetizing their data.

Social media companies collect, share and process vast troves of information about their users while offering little transparency or control, including over how it is used by systems incorporating artificial intelligence,

The Federal Trade Commission released a report Thursday slamming social media platforms including Facebook's parent company, Meta, as well as TikTok, Google-owned YouTube, Snap and other online services over privacy and youth safety concerns.

The FTC just published results of a sweeping study of social media sites that has been going on for four years. The organization said that many social media sites and streaming services engage in “vast surveillance of consumers in order to monetize their personal information.

Popular social media platforms and video streaming services pose serious risks to user privacy, with children and teenagers most at risk, the Federal Trade Commission found in a report published Thursday.

The consumer-protection agency said in a report that major social-media companies and video streaming services engaged in vast consumer surveillance while failing to provide adequate privacy controls or safeguards for children.

T he Federal Trade Commission published a new report about social media platforms and video streaming services’ data collection policies, and the results are damning if not unex