Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

FTC Again Calls for Single Federal Privacy Law

May 16, 2019

As Naked Security reported on May 10th, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is again advocating the long-discussed, much-debated, when-in-the-world-will-this-happen national data privacy law, the lack of which keeps the country from parity with the EU and its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or with the state of California with its California's Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). As readers of this blog know, I think it is insane that we do not have a national privacy law.

FTC commissioners testified recently before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. They addressed how a national privacy law could regulate how big tech companies like Facebook and Google collect and handle user data.

Besides consumer protection, the FTC is looking for more power. Commissioners asked Congress to strengthen the agency’s ability to police violations, asking for more resources and greater authority to impose penalties. At this point, as lawmakers squabble over the details of various approaches to a national law, the US lags behind European and other nations that have acted to rein in the growing might of big tech.

Lawmakers tend to agree with me that we need a new, single federal privacy law. At this point, we’ve got a confusing hodgepodge of state laws and a slew of proposed federal laws. It makes no sense at all.

Some have called for a clear, strong message to tech companies about the necessity to change their behavior after they’re found guilty of privacy rule violations. This is punishment a la Senator Wyden’s “throw-the-execs-in-jail” proposal. I am a big fan of that proposal because nothing else seems to impede the complete abandon with which tech companies do whatever they like with our data to enrich themselves and their companies.

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