FTC Considering New Privacy Paradigms

A few articles covering remarks by new FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Dave Vladeck have described some of the latest thinking at the Commission.  Here is a synopsis from the law firm of Perkins Coie.

–Over the past ten years the agency has followed two approaches. Neither has worked well. The first was notice and consent. But consumers don’t know what they are consenting so, especially regarding secondary uses of their data. The second was a “harm” approach like GLB. Certain data collection practices pose privacy risks so great that we protect consumers by banning or imposing defined obligations on the practices, regardless of what the collecting firm has disclosed to consumers or asked them to consent to. But the “harm” model doesn’t address “non-quantifiable” harms (he didn’t define those harms). So we need a new approach.—

This could indicate a major turning point and is – IMHO – big news.