FTC Findings on Commercial Surveillance Can Lead to Better Alternatives

<

div class=”field field–name-body field–type-text-with-summary field–label-hidden”>

<

div class=”field__items”>

<

div class=”field__item even”>

On September 19, the FTC published a staff report following a multi-year investigation of nine social media and video streaming companies. The report found a myriad of privacy violations to consumers stemming largely from the ad-revenue based business models of companies including Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) which prompted unbridled consumer surveillance practices. In addition to these findings, the FTC points out various ways in which user data can be weaponized to lock out competitors and dominate the respective markets of these companies.

The report finds that market dominance can be established and expanded by acquisition and maintenance of user data, creating an unfair advantage and preventing new market entrants from fairly competing. EFF has found that  this is not only true for new entrants who wish to compete by similarly siphoning off large amounts of user data, but also for consumer-friendly companies who carve out a niche by refusing to play the game of dominance-through-surveillance. Abusing user data in an anti-competitive manner means users may not even learn of alternatives who have their best interests, rather than the best interests of the company advertising partners, in mind.

The relationship between privacy violations and anti-competitive behavior is elaborated upon in a section of the report which points out that “data abuse can raise entry barriers and fuel market dominance, and market dominance can, in turn, further enable data abuses and practices that harm consumers in an unvirtuous cycle.” In contrast with the recent United States v. Google LLC (2020) ruling, where Judge Amit P. Mehta found that the data collection practices of Google, though injurious to consumers, were outweighed by an improved user experience,

[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.