FTC Hosts Forum on ANPR to Govern Commercial Surveillance

On August 11, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPR”) to govern the “collection, aggregation, analysis, retention, transfer, or monetization of consumer data and the direct derivatives of that information.”

On September 8, 2022, the FTC hosted a forum regarding the ANPR, featuring FTC Chair Lina M. Khan, Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Khan and Slaughter noted that the ANPR is not intended to undermine the efforts to establish federal privacy legislation and affirmed their support of those efforts.

Following these speeches, there were two panel discussions that welcomed public commentary. The first focused on industry perspectives of the ANPR, addressing the need for transparency in documentation processes while still maintaining the direct relationship between online retailers and consumers.

The second panel featured consumer advocates that stated, among other things, that the FTC should increase safeguards surrounding sensitive data, place limits around widescale tracking, ban secondary use and third-party disclosures of consumer information, and shift the data protection responsibilities from individuals onto companies to combat discrimination through data collection and advertising.

Consumers and businesses should continue to monitor the ANPR and the FTC’s regulatory efforts surrounding data governance and privacy.