While Mark Zuckerberg enjoys his visit in Moscow, Facebook's executive board is busy to handle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Obama administration, issuing their worries about privacy on the social network.
The Like Button Might Not Be Safe For Children
The social network has told the Obama administration that child privacy laws shouldn't apply to any web site’s ability to incorporate a Like button, because that would inhibit freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment. The White House wasn't that impressed by this argument, knowing that Facebook allowed children under 13 years old to register on the platform, so it requested more warranties about this fact.
On the other hand, even FTC is interested about this subject, asking Facebook a deep analysis of children protection on the social network. The company sent a long letter of 20 pages to FTC last week in which it objected to certain proposed revisions of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa).
The Like Button Might Not Be Safe For Children
Facebook argued that it had no control over sites that incorporate the Like button and so can't be made responsible under the child privacy law. Concretely, Coppa requires sites that collect personal information on children to obtain written parental permission, if the child is under the age of 13. Officially, Facebook prohibits children under 13 to sign up, but studies have shown a different side of the reality. Facebook tries to convince everybody that it can't always control when someone under 13 visits a site that contains a Like button.
The American authorities would love to make Facebook more responsible, but honestly I don't see Zuckerberg monitoring everything happening under the Like button, mandatorily found in most social plug-ins.
It's not all about the cookies, tracking users’ travels across the Web. Facebook has an additional advantage: the Like button tells each time someone goes on a certain page, even if she or he doesn't click on it.
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