Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Hahn said it was time for the agency, which was tasked with enforcing consumer privacy, to “reassess” the rules about what companies can collect for consumers and how they protect that data.
Khan, who spoke Monday at an event hosted by the International Association for the Protection of Confidentiality, called the current notification and consent framework “outdated and insufficient”. She said it was time for a major paradigm shift in which the Federal Trade Commission as federal regulator and Congress, which has long promised confidentiality legislation, are doing something to ensure that consumers do not have to give up their personal data. to have access to online tools that have become essential for everyday life.
She also questioned whether companies should be allowed to collect data indiscriminately, noting that most users are not even aware of what data is being collected and where their personal information ends up.
I believe that we need to approach the protection of data confidentiality and security by looking at substantial limitations, not just procedural protections, which tend to create requirements for the process, while bypassing the more fundamental issues of whether certain types of collection and data processing should be allowed in the first place, “she said.
Khan’s comments came nearly a year after she was confirmed by the Senate for a seat in the FTC and then appointed president by President Biden. Progressives hailed her election as president for her work as an antitrust reformer best known for her work advocacy of large technology companiessuch as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.
Confidentiality experts are also pushing Han to introduce long-awaited federal rules that specify what data companies can collect for consumers and how companies should protect that data. Hahn acknowledged the need for such rules, citing the consumer surveillance economics economy, which generates revenue from personal information and creates a business model that “seems to stimulate endless tracking and retrieval of consumer data.”
She also spoke about the need for the Federal Trade Commission to take a multidisciplinary approach to law enforcement, addressing both confidentiality and antitrust. She explained how large companies can use their market dominance to force consumers to pass on their personal data, whether they want to or not.
“When confronted with technologies that are increasingly critical to navigation in modern life, consumers often do not have a realistic set of alternatives and cannot reasonably abandon the use of these tools,” she said. She added that we must “collectively consider whether we want to live in a society in which companies can determine access to critical technologies and consumer opportunities, which must be passed on to commercial surveillance.”
While Hahn said he was considering new rules, the Federal Trade Commission has not yet begun a formal rule-making process, as the commission is still divided into two Democrats and two Republicans. Without a clear democratic majority, Khan has no votes to move his agenda forward.
That may change soon, as the Senate is expected to vote after the Easter break to confirm President Biden’s nomination for the third Democratic seat in the FTC. Alvaro Bedoya, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, known for his work on confidentiality.
Congressional Privacy Bill
in the meantime, efforts in Congress to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation are stagnant because Democrats and Republicans disagree on the degree of federal anticipation of state laws and the inclusion of a private right of action that would allow consumers to sue if their data is processed incorrectly.
Khan acknowledged the importance of federal law in making a significant paradigm shift, but she also said the Federal Trade Commission was in a good position to deal with the implementation within the powers Congress has already given the agency.
“Even without a federal privacy or security law, the Federal Trade Commission has been serving as de facto law enforcement in this area for decades,” she told the event.
To highlight the agency’s achievements in these matters, Hahn also noted some recent agreements involving alleged violations of the Children’s Privacy Act. In December, the agency announced that it had settled on the online advertising platform OpenX Technologies, which the FTC claims collected geolocation data from children without parental consent, in violation of federal law.
In March, the agency agreed to WW International’s Kurbo app, an online weight management program for children that is alleged to have illegally collected personal data about children, including birthdays, eating habits and daily activities. Khan said that in these cases, the Federal Trade Commission has done more than just impose fines.
Regarding Courbet, she said that “the settlement requires not only businesses to pay a sanction for violating the law, but also to erase their illegally earned profits and destroy all algorithms derived from this data.”
She said the Federal Trade Commission had also taken prescriptive action, such as requiring CafePress, an online goods platform, in an agreement reached in March, to adopt specific security measures after the agency said it had failed to protect sensitive individuals. consumer data and then covered up the infringement. .
But Khan said the agency could do more.
“Without a doubt, we will continue to use our current implementation tools to take swift and bold action,” Khan said. “However, the realities of how companies monitor, categorize and generate revenue from consumer data in today’s economy invite us to think about how we may need to further update our approach.”