Major Changes Ahead For The Digital Economy? What Companies Should Know About FTC's Privacy, Data Security And Algorithm Rulemaking Proceeding

On August 22, 2022, the Federal Register published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) to address what the FTC characterized in its press release as "harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security." The FTC's new Democratic majority, in a 3-2 party-line vote, agreed to issue the ANPR, which also covers automated decision-making. The broad scope of the ANPR—and the Commission's announcement that "it is exploring rules to crack down on" harmful practices—signal that major regulatory changes affecting the digital economy may be on the horizon. (We provided a brief summary of the ANPR in our August 15 blog post.)