Privacy expert Jessica Rich, the former director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), wrote in the The New York Times this summer that it is “time for Congress” to grant the FTC “the increased authority and resources it has needed for the last 25 years.”
Rich is also a consultant for Privacy for America, the coalition dedicated to approval of a comprehensive federal privacy law that truly protects consumers, of which the Insights Association is a founding member. Privacy for America’s approach centers on empowering the FTC to more forcefully assume the role of the nation’s privacy cop.
“You might think that after the Federal Trade Commission levied a $5 billion fine against Facebook for privacy violations relating to Cambridge Analytica, the agency has great power to protect our privacy on the internet,” Rich wrote. However, “the F.T.C. lacks both the legal authority and resources to be fully effective in this area. The reason? Congress has repeatedly declined to enact a broad-based federal privacy and data security law setting strong privacy standards, codifying penalties for wrongdoers and allocating the staff and funds necessary to enforce the law nationwide.”
Rich used her op-ed to argue for “establishing basic privacy norms that all companies must follow” in conjunction with civil penalties “and about 100 new staff members.”
News
"Give the F.T.C. Some Teeth to Guard Our Privacy." By Jessica Rich. The New York Times. Aug. 12, 2019.Government AffairsHoward Fienberg, CAE – The Insights Association
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