Category Archives: Lina Khan

Momentum builds to strengthen FTC’s role as privacy enforcer, though hurdles remain

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When the White House nominated Alvaro Bedoya, a Georgetown law professor known for his expertise on privacy, for a role on the Federal Trade Commission, privacy advocates interpreted the move as the latest evidence that the agency is looking to expand its work investigating and bringing cases against companies that exploit and mismanage consumer data. Bedoya, a former Senate Judiciary counsel who is known for his work addressing racial and gender bias on facial recognition technology and other surveillance of communities of color, comes with the promise of what privacy advocates envision for the future of the agency. “Just as Lina Khan really sent a strong signal about taking the FTC seriously as an antitrust regulator, I think that the nomination of Alvaro Bedoya should send us the same signal to take the agency seriously as a privacy regulator,” said Christine Bannan, senior policy counsel at the Open Technology Institute, one […]

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FTC threatens fines for health apps that fail to report compromised data

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App developers and device operators that collect health data about Americans must alert consumers in the event their personal information is compromised or shared without permission, the Federal Trade Commission ruled Wednesday. The U.S. consumer protection agency voted 3-2 on a new regulation that is meant to clarify the 2009 Health Notification Rule, which details how companies should tell consumers if their data is improperly shared or breached. The decision Wednesday extends the 2009 rule to cover health apps, fitness trackers and other connected devices that have risen in popularity over the past decade. “The global pandemic has hastened the adoption of virtual health assistants, with Americans placing their trust in various technologies to track and manage their personal health,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “As we have seen, however, digital apps are routinely caught playing fast and loose with user data, leaving users’ health information susceptible […]

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