FTCvideos's video: FTC Hearing: Opening Remarks by FTC Chairman Joe Simons followed by - April 9 2019 - Session 1

FTC Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century FTC Hearing: Opening Remarks by FTC Chairman Joe Simons followed by Panels on the Goals of Privacy Protection and the Data Risk Spectrum - April 9, 2019 - Session 1 This hearing was originally set to take place on February 12 -13 but has been rescheduled for April 9-10, 2019 due to the government shutdown. As part of a series of Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century announced in June 2018, the Commission was to host a hearing to discuss the privacy aspects of Topic 5. (Topics 4 and 9, which address big data and artificial intelligence, also have privacy-related components; those topics were the subject of separate hearings on November 6-8 and November 13-14, respectively. The data security portion of Topic 5 were the subject of a separate hearing on December 11-12, 2018. The Commission released information on those hearings separately.) The Commission welcomes written comments on specific questions to be discussed at the privacy hearing, as stated below. Interested parties may file comments electronically until May 31, 2019. If any entity has provided funding for research, analysis, or commentary that is included in a submitted public comment, such funding and its source should be identified on the first page of the comment. The privacy of consumer data is a daily topic of news headlines, public discourse, and policy debates around the globe. Questions abound about consumers’ ability to make informed choices about data collection and use; potential harms to consumers resulting from data collection, sharing, aggregation, and use; the adequacy of existing legal and self-regulatory frameworks to protect consumers from those harms without unduly restraining legitimate business activity; and whether emerging frameworks improve on prior versions. The Federal Trade Commission last undertook efforts to engage the public in considering data privacy issues in a comprehensive way from 2009-2012. During that time, the Commission held a series of public roundtable discussions, published a draft privacy framework, and obtained and considered more than 450 written public comments. The Commission’s work culminated in 2012 with a comprehensive privacy report. Technologies and business models have changed significantly since the FTC issued the 2012 report. Consumers have benefited from the proliferation of mobile apps, mobile payment systems, Internet-connected devices (i.e., the Internet of Things), and other innovations. At the same time, consumers have expressed concern about the growing collection and use of their data, and businesses have enhanced their ability to link consumers’ behavior across devices and platforms. Some jurisdictions have enacted new laws that contain new approaches for addressing privacy risks. The European Union, for example, enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (effective in May 2018), which includes data access, erasure, and portability rights and breach notification requirements. Some states have enacted comprehensive privacy laws or laws that address particular technologies, such as biometrics. For its part, the Commission has not only continued using its broad authority to prohibit unfair and deceptive practices, but also enforces more specific privacy statutes, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In addition, the Administration is working toward development of principles and tools to protect consumer privacy. For example, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking comment on core privacy principles and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a privacy framework to help organizations manage privacy risks.