FTC Reigns as De Facto US Data Privacy Enforcer
With no nationwide data privacy law in the US the Federal Trade Commission has established itself as the prime enforcer for privacy matters, even while other government agencies and private entities jockey to regulate private data.
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Blank Rome partner Sharon Klein noted that it’s a power the FTC has wielded for decades, with the agency extending that authority to data protection in recent years.
“The FTC has always been in my mind the uber-data protector because they have broad powers under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act that essentially empowers them to do extensive enforcement for unfair or deceptive acts or practices” Klein said.
She noted that the FTC’s authority was solidified in 2016 when the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the FTC had the power to regulate hotel chain Wyndham’s and other private entities’ cybersecurity practices.
But states are also increasingly bolstering their privacy enforcement efforts with data privacy-specific laws, Klein added.
“All of those state pieces of legislation have similar threads to what the FTC is doing but enforced at the state level,” she said.
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"FTC Reigns as De Facto US Data Privacy Enforcer," by Victoria Hudgins was published in the Global Data Review on June 7, 2022.