The FTC finds that the business models of the companies investigated are heavily based on the monetization of user data and that the social media companies themselves cannot be trusted to hold themselves accountable: Given the billions of dollars companies can make from collecting and monetizing user data,

Aside from failing to remove data from former users, most of the said platforms also had no safeguards for data belonging to youths ages 13 to 17, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

A recent study by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has unveiled alarming practices of mass surveillance employed by major social media and internet companies. The report, published following four years of investigation,