Technologists deserve a greater role in government policymaking

Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, acknowledging the increasingly important role that her agency plays in protecting consumer privacy, recently put forward an intriguing policy proposal. She called on the FTC to stay on top of the latest research in data security and privacy in order to foster a marketplace where technology flourishes and consumer privacy is safeguarded. In doing so, Chairwoman Ramirez conveyed a realistic recognition of the gap between the FTC’s broad legal authority for online privacy issues and its available internal resources to stay current with new methods that may cause harm. However, she was not urging more filings by lawyers or studies by economists regarding the rapid growth of online activities.

Chairwoman Ramirez should be commended for taking a concrete first step that her government colleagues throughout Washington can emulate. Hopefully, they will be sending teams of observers to the first PrivacyCon meeting to listen and learn.