Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission announced that it is restoring its long-established practice of routinely restricting future acquisitions for merging parties that pursue anti-competitive mergers.

Many internet service providers (ISPs) collect and share far more data about their customers than many consumers may expect—including access to all of their Internet traffic and real-time location data—while failing to offer consumers meaningful choices about how this data can be used. This report details the expanding scope and some troubling aspects of some ISP data collection practices.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan announced that an open meeting of the FTC will be held virtually on Thursday, October 21, 2021. The open meeting will begin at 1 pm EST and will be followed by a time for members of the public to address the FTC. Staff will present some findings from evidence gathered pursuant to the 2019 6(b) orders issued to six Internet service providers and three of their advertising affiliates in regards to their privacy practices. The public release of the report is subject to commission vote.

This report was compiled in response to a directive for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “conduct a comprehensive internal assessment measuring the agency’s current efforts related to data privacy and security while separately identifying all resource-based needs of the FTC to improve in these areas." First, the report provides an overview of the FTC’s authority related to privacy and security, highlighting certain recent efforts in those areas. Second, it discusses priorities for improving the effectiveness of our efforts to protect Americans’ privacy.