New FTC Tech Chief Wants to Get His Hands Dirty with Code

[Commentary] Ashkan Soltani is about a month into his latest and perhaps most high-profile role in a long line of data privacy and technology consulting gigs: Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Trade Commission.

"I plan to work on expanding the agency's tech capacity, or in other words, bringing on more geeks and better tools," he said. In addition to data security issues as they relate to the consumer protection oversight that the FTC is known for, a key focus he expects to emphasize is what he calls "algorithmic transparency." The idea is for the FTC to have better insight into how companies such as ecommerce, travel and financial services firms feed web behavior, location, demographic and other data into algorithms that determine variable prices, something the FTC and consumer advocates worry could result in discrimination.