Federal Trade Commission Looking At New Rules To Combat Discrimination In Algorithms And Poor Security Practices

The brief FTC note indicates the agency will look to combat poor security practices, protect against the misuse of personal information, and discrimination arising from algorithmic decision-making.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") submitted a brief summary of potential rules it may look at implementing over the course of 2022 to the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB"). The summary comes on the heels of a letter from FTC Commissioner Lina Khan to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who is the chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; as well as the chair of the subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security.

According to Commissioner Khan, any such rulemaking would be conducted under an updated, streamlined rule making process. The updated process eliminates time consuming elements of the rulemaking process (such as staff reports and analysis) that are not specifically required by law. The hope is