Meta pushes back on US FTC's bid to amend 2020 privacy settlement

SAN FRANCISCO: Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab has rebuffed an attempt by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to amend a 2020 privacy settlement, noting that it had voluntarily disclosed two technical errors related to its Messenger Kids app to the agency.

Meta disclosed the bugs in July 2019, the Facebook-parent said in a filing on Thursday, adding it had spent $5.5 billion on its privacy program and related privacy initiatives.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

In question is an existing 2020 Facebook privacy settlement to ban profiting from minors' data and expand curbs on facial recognition technology. The FTC has said it wants to tighten the settlement.

The agency has accused Meta of misleading parents about protections for children.

In March, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the Instagram-owner cannot stop the FTC from reopening a probe into its Facebook unit's privacy practices for now, despite Meta's objections that it already paid a $5 billion fine and agreed to a range of safeguards.

Meta, which has denied misleading parents about privacy risks, sued the FTC in November in a broad constitutional challenge against the agency's ability to be both an investigative body and an adjudicative one.