Advocacy Groups Urge FTC to Act Against Data Abuses and Discrimination

45 civil-rights, media-democracy and consumer-advocacy groups called on Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan to initiate a rulemaking to safeguard privacy, promote civil rights and set guardrails against the abuse of data online. Discriminatory and abusive data practices are prevalent across the digital economy, the groups wrote in a letter submitted to Khan. “A rulemaking that addresses the entire life cycle of data—collection, use, management, retention, and deletion — will provide people with significant protection from discrimination and related data harms.” “As people in the United States are learning more and more about how platforms are abusing their data, they should also know that the FTC has the authority to act right now to protect them,” said Carmen Scurato, associate legal director and senior counsel at Free Press. “Through a rulemaking process, the agency can build a record of the harms and put in place guardrails against discriminatory and dangerous data practices that disproportionately impact people of color. We’ve read enough stories about companies like Facebook that weaponize our data and put profits before our civil rights. Now the FTC must act.”