Biden Has Been Very Good on This

While I have disappointed more often than not by Joe Biden, the people that he has hired to work antitrust and privacy are doing some good work.

Case in point, the aggressive actions by Lina Khan as Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are a major shift by the previously somnolescent organization.

This time, they are going after the stalker-capitalists:

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it would begin considering new federal rules to expand online privacy protections by targeting online surveillance and lax data-security practices by technology companies.

The FTC’s action, on a 3-2 vote divided along partisan lines, spurred immediate criticism that the agency is taking on a role better suited for Congress. If adopted, the rules could impose significant new responsibilities on businesses that handle consumer data, including potentially barring certain kinds of data collection and handling practices.

Of course it was a party line vote.

“Firms now collect personal data on individuals at a massive scale and in a stunning array of contexts,” FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan said in announcing the action. “Our goal today is to begin building a robust public record to inform whether the FTC should issue rules to address commercial surveillance and data security practices and what those rules should potentially look like.”

The move is the latest indication of the five-member commission’s more aggressive approach under Ms. Khan, a Democrat who has been a vocal critic of big business, particularly large technology companies.

Her criticism is not of big businesses, it is of monopolistic businesses.

………

The FTC said it would be examining a range of concerns about the online environment, including the widespread use of algorithms to manipulate and leverage data, security practices that leave data vulnerable to hackers, and the growing evidence that some platforms might be “addictive to children and lead to a wide variety of mental health and social harms.”

The FTC also is expected to examine possible discriminatory effects of algorithms based on legally protected characteristics such as race, gender, religion and age, the agency said. It also suggested it would examine tactics companies use to coerce consumers into sharing their data.

………

The FTC’s action opens up a public comment period on the issue. Any rule could take years to enact.

Ms. Khan has made a number of moves to lay the groundwork for potential rule-making since taking office last year, including by voting with the FTC’s two other Democrats to change internal procedures to expand her control over the rule-writing process.

Early in his term, President Biden ordered the FTC to look at writing competition rules in a number of areas, including “unfair data collection and surveillance practices that may damage competition, consumer autonomy, and consumer privacy.”

This, along with similar actions is a very good thing.  

I would hope that these new, and desperately needed, changes to regulatory philosophy remain in force long enough to both change the culture of the regulatory organizations and to remake the economy in a freer and fairer way.