[LINK] US Federal Trade Commission Says Social Media Platforms Engage in Vast-Surveillance of Users

[Roger Clarke]

Thanks for posting, Stephen.

Here are my rueful remarks on the privacy list:

[ Fully a quarter-century back, I published an article in Communications 
of the ACM entitled 'Internet Privacy Concerns Confirm the Case for 
Intervention':  http://rogerclarke.com/DV/CACM99.html

[ A couple of years later, Al Qaeda took down the Twin Towers, natsec 
extremism has held sway ever since, and corporations have fed the 
surveillance beast, converted the Web from client-driven to 
server-dominated, hoovered up data, and monetised it.

[ But it's nice to see that US regulators, who are generally even more 
friendly to corporate interests than their Australian counterparts, have 
given up pretending that self-regulation achieves anything at all:

 > ... these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, 
threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from 
identify theft to stalking ...

 > ... self-regulation is not the answer ... the FTC says Congress 
should pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation to limit 
surveillance and give consumers rights over their data ...

[ Too late.  Digital Surveillance Economy corporations are so powerful 
that no US Administration is likely to be prepared to rein them in. 
Eric Schmidt wanted corporatised government, and we're nearly there. ]


Clarke R. (2019)  'Risks Inherent in the Digital Surveillance Economy: A 
Research Agenda'  Journal of Information Technology 34,1 (Mar 2019) 
59-80, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/DSE.html

Greenleaf G. et al. (2019)  'Digital platforms: The need to restrict 
surveillance capitalism'  Submission to the ACCC, Australian Privacy 
Foundation, February 2019, at 
http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/SSRN-id3341044.pdf

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FTC Says Social Media Platforms Engage in ‘Vast Surveillance’ of Users
A scathing new report takes aim directly at Big Tech and alleged 
violations of privacy.
Matt Novak
Gizmodo
September 20, 2024
https://gizmodo.com/ftc-says-social-media-platforms-engage-in-vast-surveillance-of-users-2000500840

________

Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA 

Visiting Professorial Fellow                          UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University