Big Tech is facing a data privacy squeeze

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)'s major move towards crafting data privacy rules is the latest signal of a potential end to Big Tech's expansive use of online data. As people grow warier of the online trails of digital data they leave behind, the lack of data privacy protections in the US has increasingly become a glaring source of concern for many. The FTC voted 3-2 along party lines to seek comment on the harms of "commercial surveillance" and whether privacy rules are needed. The advance notice of proposed rulemaking, the first step in the rulemaking process, asks several questions about companies' data collection practices and the potential to harm consumers, including children. "We've seen now that the growing and continuing digitization of our economy means that [privacy violations and data security breaches] may now be prevalent, and that case by case enforcement may fail to adequately deter law breaking or remedy the resulting harms," FTC chair Lina Khan said. Meanwhile, the FTC's efforts come as bipartisan lawmakers try to pass the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (H.R. 8152), which has advanced farther than similar proposals.  The FTC could spur Congress to act on long-awaited federal privacy legislation, and start to lay out what American digital privacy rules could look like.