The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday ordered some of the biggest technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Google’s YouTube, to hand over information about how they collect and use information from users.
The commission said it is issuing sweeping demands for information to the companies, saying that their use of consumer data is “shrouded in secrecy.”
The move intensifies the US government’s scrutiny of the tech industry’s business practices.
The commission last week sued Facebook for alleged violations of antitrust laws, a case that came on the heels of a US Department of Justice complaint against Google.
The commission is also reviewing past acquisitions of start-ups by tech giants.
“Policymakers and the public are in the dark about what social media and video streaming services do to capture and sell users’ data and attention,” three commissioners said in a statement. “It is alarming that we still know so little about companies that know so much about us.”
The agency is also asking about the companies’ advertising and user engagement practices, and how their practices affect children and teenagers.
The review would “lift the hood on the social media and video streaming firms to carefully study their engines,” the three commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Rohit Chopra and Christine Wilson, said.
Commission Chairman Joe Simons joined the three in voting for the study, while Commissioner Noah Phillips voted against it, calling it “an undisciplined foray into a wide variety of topics.”
Chopra and Wilson had previously made calls for a similar study.
Axios reported earlier on the study.
The orders are also being sent to ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), which operates short-video service TikTok, Discord Inc, Reddit Inc, Snap Inc, Twitter Inc and Facebook’s WhatsApp.
The companies have 45 days from the date they receive the order to respond.
Amazon and Facebook declined to comment. YouTube, TikTok and Snap did not respond to requests for comment.
A Twitter spokeswoman said that the company is working “to ensure the FTC has the information it needs to understand how Twitter operates its services.”
A Reddit spokesperson said it is “looking forward to working with the FTC and sharing with them” its policies and practices.
A spokesperson for Discord said that the social platform popular with gamers does not have ads, and said that the company “takes user privacy very seriously” and will work “with the FTC to answer their questions.”
The commission is issuing the orders under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which authorizes it to conduct wide-ranging studies.
The orders do not have to have a specific law enforcement purpose, but the information can be used in future enforcement.
The commission, which polices competition law and privacy, is also looking into the data practices of Internet service providers.
Children’s privacy advocates applauded the move.
“These 6(b) studies will provide a much-needed window into the opaque data practices that have a profound impact on young people’s well-being,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which has called for similar probes.
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