FTC Asleep On “Big Data” Regulation?

A Los Angeles Times columnist looks at a recent Federal Trade Commission report about the implications of “big data” and finds it wanting. The FTC report, entitled Big Data – A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?, “stopped short of laying down rules for how companies collect and profit from customer information,” writes David Lazarus. He contrasts the FTC approach with that of regulators in Europe, where consumers have a “right-to-be-forgotten,” and where regulators must be notified of data breaches within three days. The column includes a testy give-and-take with an FTC official over the degree to which the Commission, under the unfair practices provision the FTC Act, is empowered to regulate companies’ collection and use of consumer data.