Social media companies gather data through tracking technologies used in online advertising and buying information from data brokers, and other means, the FTC said.

Consumers do not understand how much privacy they are giving up, largely to facilitate targeted advertising, the Federal Trade Commission said in a report on the data practices of social media and video streaming companies.

Social media companies collect, share and process vast troves of information about their users while offering little transparency or control, including over how it is used by systems incorporating artificial intelligence,