An FTC privacy push could begin as soon as today, says a new report, thanks to the determination of chair Lina Khan to make this a key issue for the commission.
However, insiders say that the process of drawing up FTC privacy rules is likely to be a slow one, and it could be years before the commission is in a position to enforce them …
Background
Ever since Europe introduced its tough GDPR privacy law, there have been calls for a similar federal privacy law in the US.
In theory, this ought to be easy to achieve, because there is strong support for such a law by consumers and businesses alike, and support from politicians on both sides of the aisle.
US public support for a federal privacy law, and other issues to constrain the powers of Big Tech, ranges from 56% to 83%, depending on the poll. What all polling results have in common is support by a majority of US citizens, and opposition by only around 10%.
US businesses also support a federal privacy law, because complying with a single set of legal requirements is far easier than the disparate state privacy laws we have at present.
Finally, there’s bipartisan support in Congress.
The problem? Some businesses want a US law to be dramatically weaker than GDPR. Indeed, some US states are pushing forward bills that were largely written by lobbyists, and Apple went as far as leaving a trade group because it was pushing for flimsy privacy legislation.
FTC chair Lina Khan has said that the commission should act, and now that there is a Democrat majority, she intends to press ahead.
FTC privacy initiative
The Wall Street Journal reports that the commission is set to begin work on a privacy initiative today, but we shouldn’t hold our breath when it comes to timings.
The Federal Trade Commission is expected to begin writing federal rules to expand online privacy protections as soon as Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.
If adopted, the rules could impose significant new responsibilities on businesses that handle consumer data, including potentially barring certain kinds of data collection practices, the people said [but] the new FTC rules could take years to enact.
It’s not yet clear which direction the FTC will take on this. The FTC could simply its use existing powers to police compliance with data protection rules, and set out a list of practices which it considers unacceptable. There are two other possible ways the commission could come at the matter indirectly.
First, the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act gives the agency powers to specify rules applicable to children, so it could begin with that before seeking to widen the net to adults too.
Second, it could use existing antitrust powers, and declare that certain types of data collection are anti-competitive, because only large companies are able to benefit from them.
Apple is mostly on the right side of the issue, with both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook speaking up. It is also ahead of the game in terms of its App Tracking Transparency initiative, with one possibility that the requirement for consent to ad tracking could be made a legal requirement.
However, some have called on the FTC to investigate Apple’s former facilitation of tracking via the IDFA (IDentifier For Advertisers).
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