Teen Advocacy Groups Ask FTC to Stop Facebook Policy Changes

facebook-general 2The aftershock from Facebook’s proposed changes to its user data policies are still being felt, this time from a coalition of teen advocacy groups. Initially, a group of consumer advocates sent a letter to the FTC asking them to stop Facebook’s proposed language changes. The new language more openly states that users give Facebook permission to use their likeness, name and other personal information in advertisements once they accept the site’s terms. Earlier this week, a group of youth advocacy organizations, including the National Collaboration for Youth and the American Academy of Pediatrics, sent a similar plea to the FTC.

“It is essential, when teens are involved, that the FTC ensure that Facebook is engaged in fair marketing practices, including its terms of service,” the letter said. “Facebook has positioned itself to take full commercial advantage of all the social interactions of adolescents on its online platforms, using a myriad of data-­enabled marketing techniques little understood by the average user.”

Facebook has delayed its policy changes to answer to an FTC inquiry, so the ultimate outcome of the new language remains unclear. However, as Facebook has pointed out time and again, many of the much-maligned aspects of these “new” policies were already in place on the site. The new language simply clarified the policies that every Facebook user has essentially already bought into.