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FTC reportedly to accuse Facebook of misleading use of phone numbers and facial recognition
The Federal Trade Commission will reportedly accuse Facebook Inc. Wednesday of not informing its customers of how it used their phone numbers and how it employed its facial recognition technology.
According to The Washington Post, the complaint will allege that Facebook deceived its users, first by allowing advertisers to take advantage of a two-factor authentication feature on the platform.
Sources told the Post that users were not made aware that once they had logged in using a onetime password sent to their phone number, they were targeted by advertisers. This kind of deceptive practice of harvesting users’ phone numbers was discovered by academic researchers last year.
The second matter is how Facebook allegedly didn’t allow some of its users to turn off its facial recognition technology. The feature is used to tag people in photos, but users’ reports suggested that at least 30 million people didn’t have the option to turn this feature off.
These two complaints are part of a wider probe by the FTC that has been going on for a while now, with a number of privacy violations included. Reports have suggested that Facebook could be slapped with a $5 billion fine, which would be the biggest fine it has ever imposed on a tech company by a long way.
The fine isn’t official as yet, and while it’s record-breaking, some people think the FTC is being too soft on the company. In a letter published in July, co-signed by senators Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and sent to all five FTC Commissioners, the three said $5 billion was “egregiously inadequate.”
“It is clear that a $5 billion fine alone is a far cry from the type of monetary figure that would alter the incentives and behavior of Facebook and its peers,” wrote the senators. “The public expects the Commission to put consumers first and to take all necessary steps in your power to remedy Facebook’s privacy problems.” They added that such a small fine will send the wrong message to tech companies.
The FTC and Facebook have not commented about these latest allegations of privacy abuse.
Image: Esther Vargas/Flickr
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