Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to news in the morning of August 12, Beijing time, a few days ago, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) openly solicited opinions on how technology companies should protect consumer privacy data, which will be the first step for the US federal government to formulate a privacy regulation system for the technology industry.

The official name of the document issued by FTC is "advance notice on the development of the proposed system". It is hoped that all sectors of the community will provide opinions and opinions on data collection, algorithmic discrimination, and business monitoring.

FTC's regulatory regime is likely to be in place by the end of this year. In the above-mentioned document, the agency did not talk about the specific provisions of the regulatory system. However, some of the questions raised by FTC suggest that the agency is concerned about all kinds of harm caused by personal privacy data collection, including harm from data collection, data disclosure, targeted advertising or algorithmic discrimination.

The automated decision-making systems used by large technology companies are the focus of FTC, which affects consumers without being informed in advance.

The document, posted on the official FTC website, raises questions such as: "what practices do (technology) companies generally use to monitor consumers?"how common is algorithmic discrimination based on protected information such as race, gender and age of consumers?"

FTC also asked whether the first Amendment to the US Constitution and Section 230 of the Communications Standardization Act would hinder FTC's enforcement of privacy.

In addition to soliciting opinions, FTC will hold a public hearing on Sept. 8 for the public to discuss the draft privacy regulation system. FTC encourages the public to express their views on this issue.

Regarding this consultation, FTC president Lena Kohan said that at present, technology companies collect private data on a large scale in various scenarios, and the purpose of FTC's consultation with the community is to understand and record public opinion and opinions to decide whether FTC should develop a regulatory regime to address issues in the areas of business surveillance and data security behavior, as well as the specific provisions of this regulatory system.

In addition to the public, the affected technology companies also have the opportunity to exert influence in the FTC regulatory process, but the role is relatively limited. At present, technology companies such as Google, Apple and Meta have not commented on the privacy regulation.

Public opinion called on FTC to act after many institutions and individuals in the United States (including members of Congress) called on FTC to take action against violations of personal privacy. Last year, some Democrats in the U.S. Senate wrote a letter to Khan asking FTC to introduce a new system to protect personal privacy.

In the letter, senators said that there is a consensus that US technology companies have violated their promises to protect consumer privacy, but that they have received only minor penalties for these violations.

Three months ago, the U.S. Senate approved privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya as a member of the FTC. Before joining the organization, Bedoya conducted extensive research on issues such as privacy data and algorithmic discrimination.

According to reports, five members of the FTC decided to consult the public by a 3:2 vote, and two Republican members voted against it.

Congressional privacy legislation is stuck in personal privacy protection, and there has been pressure and calls in the United States to formulate standards or laws to protect personal privacy at the federal level. However, in the United States Congress, personal privacy legislation has stalled, and some lawmakers have put forward draft legislation or proposals, but have not received majority support.

Recently, the United States data Privacy and Protection Act was passed by a committee of members of Congress, but the law will still face challenges in the Senate. In addition, some legislation on regulatory algorithms and strengthening the government's anti-monopoly supervision have also failed to achieve positive results.

In an interview in January, U.S. Senator Robucha, a Minnesota Democrat, said years of inaction led to the current state of privacy protection. Many people boast, but fail to pass specific laws.

The challenge of FTC the stagnation of congressional legislation has led to the challenge of some personal privacy regulatory systems to FTC.

FTC is currently in a lawsuit with social networking giant Meta, asking the court to cancel its acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp; in July, FTC sued again, asking the court to rescind Meta's acquisition of a virtual reality software maker, both on antitrust grounds.

Us President Joe Biden has called on FTC to focus on protecting private information that could put some women who have abortions at risk after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling on abortion rights.

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