For the FTC, privacy is an ecosystem issue

The Federal Trade Commission has its eye on the privacy practices of a wide variety of data-collecting players, the deputy director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said.

Daniel Kaufman said the rise of mobile ecosystems and the Internet of things, with the myriad companies and devices they involve, required a broad view. For example, Kaufman said, the FTC targeted HTC over privacy-busting security flaws and Android flashlight app maker Goldenshores over its deceptive privacy policy. The agency even has a “mobile lab” staffed with technologists and attorneys who check out where devices and apps send users’ data, and how that squares with their claimed privacy policies.

“For us we have to look at the entire ecosystem and make sure all the players are doing what they should be doing and what the law allows,” Kaufman said.