EFF filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission Monday, in response to the Commission’s request for public comment addressing harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security.
EFF laid out many of its core principles on data privacy regulation in ways that fall in line with the FTC’s authority to address unfair and deceptive practices and protect the competitive process.
The comments urge the Commission to pay attention to specific issue areas and industries, including worker privacy, student privacy, the privacy of daycare apps, stalkerware, and location data brokers.
The comments also emphasize the need for the FTC to play a active role in protecting Americans’ privacy. “[T]here are many places in which American’s data privacy is not adequately protected by any current privacy law,” the comments said. “The Commission must issue new rules to place new limits on companies that violate our trust and strengthen the general privacy landscape. As the federal government’s privacy enforcer, the FTC must be the vanguard for privacy protections.”
You can find EFF’s full comments here.