“To what extent can open source media analytics help detect and monitor regional security events and how could these platforms be used to enhance corporate capability to enact crisis response plans in high threat environments?”
The FTC is the most influential government body that enforces privacy and data protection in the U.S. It oversees essentially all business conduct in the country affecting interstate commerce and individual consumers. Through exercise of powers arising out of Section 5 of the FTC Act, the FTC has taken a leading role in laying out general privacy principles for the modern economy. Section 5 charges the FTC with prohibiting “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” The FTC enforces consumers’ online privacy by targeting companies that engage in unfair and deceptive practices, as defined in section 5 of the FTC Act. Unfair business practices may include retroactively changing a company’s privacy policy without notifying users or giving them the choice to opt out, collecting user data without notice, or implementing substandard security procedures. A deceptive business practice may consist of a company sharing user information with third-party advertisers despite having stated previously that it would never do so without user notification, or a company illicitly collecting personal information from consumers. The FTC must weigh an alleged unfair practice against any countervailing benefits to consumers resulting from the practice. Only if the FTC finds there is a substantial injury to consumers, and no comparable benefits to consumers, may it bring a complaint for unfairness against a company.
Utilizing these two principles, the FTC has developed a robust record of settlements that privacy professionals pay close attention to in order to determine best practices in the area of informational privacy. While settlements do not set precedent, their influence in the privacy community means that companies treat consent orders much like judicial decisions that have the weight of precedent. This is true even though consent orders do not require companies to admit to any wrongdoing. An added benefit of settling is efficiency, in that the FTC and the company in question do not have to tie up the courts and spend
