What does the new FTC look like under Andrew Ferguson’s chairmanship? The Bradley law firm has published several articles at Online and On Point focused on that question. In May, we noted Part 1, “Staying in Our Lane”: Andrew Ferguson’s FTC Philosophy on Privacy Enforcement, and Part 2, Children and Location: Ferguson’s FTC Privacy Enforcement Priorities.
Now the law firm has published Part 3, Data Categories and Surveillance Pricing: Ferguson’s Nuanced Approach to Privacy Innovation. From that post:
Ferguson has expressed significant skepticism about the FTC designating certain categories of data as inherently “sensitive” without clear statutory basis. In his September 2024 statement on the Social Media and Video Streaming Services Report, Ferguson criticized this approach:
“I am skeptical that this is the kind of injury the law should try to address… I doubt it could. Any such line would tend toward arbitrariness and is not a stable system on which to decide whether advertisements are illegal.”
Ferguson’s critique reflects his broader concern that creating subjective lists of “sensitive” data categories raises several problems:
Read more at Online and On Point.