Wyden to Roll Out Plan to Boost FTC Authority, Resources

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Wednesday he will roll out a plan “in the weeks ahead” to bolster FTC authority and resources for protecting Americans' data. Asked after the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in which he made the announcement (see 1808010074), Wyden declined to offer exact detail about whether his “plan” is legislation, a resolution or another vehicle. Protecting private data is going to be a “national security issue,” Wyden said during the hearing, accusing Russia and Cambridge Analytica of exploiting Facebook to abuse personal information. “A significant part of the failure is the fact that the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t have the authority or the resources to be a tougher cop on the beat, and I’m going to be rolling out a plan to fix that in the weeks ahead,” Wyden said.