Whether it’s the fitness tracker on your wrist, the “smart” home appliances, or the latest kid’s fashion that goes viral in online videos, they all produce a ton of personal data for big tech companies.
The way this data is used and protected has led to growing public concern and outrage from parents and officials. Now federal regulators are considering crafting rules to crack down on what they call “harmful commercial surveillance.”
The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday its initiative to solicit public comment on the effects of companies’ data collection and the potential benefit of new rules to protect consumer privacy.
The FTC defines commercial surveillance as “the business of collecting, analyzing, and profiting from information about people.”
“Our nation is the world’s undisputed leader in technology … but we are almost alone in our lack of protections,” FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya told reporters Thursday.
The United States has never had a federal privacy law. But the bipartisan condemnation in Congress of the data power of Facebook’s Meta matrix, Google and other tech giants that aggregate consumer information used by online advertisers, has brought national data privacy legislation to its closest point to approval, in the form of the American Data Privacy. and Protection Act.
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Across the country, parental concern has increased about the impact of social media on children. Frances Haugen, a former data scientist at Facebook, shocked Congress and the public The last fall when he exposed internal company research showing apparent serious harm to teenage girls on Instagram. His revelations were followed by senators asking executives at YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat about what they are doing to keep young users safe after suicides and other harm to children and adolescents attributed by their parents to their use of social media platforms.
Democratic members of the FTC said Thursday that it is imperative that Congress pass a new law, but that the agency was taking steps in the meantime by issuing the notice of proposed rules.
“Mass surveillance has increased the risks and interests of data breaches, fraud, manipulation and other abuses,” the FTC said.
Case-by-case execution
Agency officials noted that the FTC has brought hundreds of enforcement actions against companies over the past two decades for data privacy and security violations. They include cases related to the share health-related data with third partiesthe collection and sharing of sensitive television viewing data for targeted advertising, and the lack of adequate security measures to protect sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers.
However, the FTC’s power is limited because it generally does not have the authority to seek financial penalties the first time a company violates the law, officials said. That could change if comprehensive privacy legislation clears Congress.
“Companies now collect personal data about people on a massive scale and in a wide variety of contexts,” FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan told reporters. “Our goal today is to begin building a robust public record to inform whether the FTC should issue rules to address commercial surveillance and data security practices, and what those rules should look like.”
“We’re really looking forward to hearing from the public,” Khan said.
Topics of interest could include how companies use algorithms and automated systems to analyze the information they collect and the potential effects of various data practices.
Khan, who was an outspoken critic of Big Tech as a law professor, was appointed by President Joe Biden last year to lead the FTC, an independent agency that oversees competition and consumer protection as well as privacy digital
The proposed rulemaking was adopted in a 3-2 vote by the FTC’s five commissioners. Khan and the other two Democrats voted to issue it, while the two Republicans opposed it.
- In:
- United States Congress
- Federal Trade Commission
- Joe Biden
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