Consumer Groups Urge FTC to Complete Privacy Rulemaking

The FTC should finalize its privacy rulemaking before year's end, more than 30 organizations urged Chair Lina Khan in a letter Thursday. Signers included Fight for the Future, Demand Progress Education Fund, Center on Race and Digital Justice, Athena Coalition, Free Press, MediaJustice and Consumer Federation of America. Khan’s FTC first sought public comment on a potential rulemaking in August 2022 (see 2208110068). Since then, the “harmful impacts of unregulated surveillance and data collection have worsened,” the groups said, citing the rise of AI technology. They cited Amazon’s biometric surveillance using Ring technology and Meta’s tracking of users across the internet as examples. Groups are “frustrated” with the agency’s “lack of action” since the initial announcement, they said: “As core privacy rights are being challenged and data surveillance corporations are finding new ways to extract even more personal, sensitive data from individuals, we implore the FTC to put forth the NPRM on commercial surveillance.” The agency declined comment.