Is the FTC powerful enough to be an effective privacy cop? New report raises questions

The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to be the US government’s top Internet privacy cop. But a new Government Accountability Office report report raises questions about whether the agency has the resources and authority it needs to protect consumers. In the past decade, the FTC has filed just 101 enforcement actions regarding Internet privacy. While nearly all of the actions resulted in settlements that required companies to take action, in most cases the FTC didn’t have the authority to issue fines. The more than 100-year-old FTC is under pressure to modernize to take greater action against Silicon Valley -- and there's broad consensus that the agency should be the one to enforce whatever privacy law potentially emerges in Washington.  The GAO report may encourage lawmakers to further empower the FTC so its ready to take on this challenge as it considers how to move forward with a privacy law. Yet there's a complex debate to be had specifically about FTC authorities. The report found some stakeholders wanted to see the size of fines increase. Some critics have said they are not large enough to actually impact technology titans. Another question raised in the report: Whether the agency should have the power to issue fines against first-time privacy offenders. The FTC generally can’t do that now.