FTC Faces Protracted Privacy Battle And Constrained Resources, Says Nominee Ohlhausen
President Barack Obama this week nominated Maureen Ohlhausen, a Republican, to replace GOP FTC Commissioner William Kovacic, whose term expires in September. An FTC veteran, Ohlhausen spent 11 years there, where she was the director of the agency’s Office of Policy Planning until 2008. She’s currently a partner at Wilkinson Barker.
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"I'm looking forward to getting back,” Ohlhausen told us Wednesday. “I've worked with many people on the staff and sitting commissioners and if confirmed I look forward to working with them again.” Ohlhausen said she'd focus her efforts on technology issues but said it’s premature to say exactly what her goals would be. “If I'm confirmed I'll need to talk to my colleagues and my staff in order to get all the facts,” she said.
During her three years in the private sector Ohlhausen said she’s noticed the FTC’s increased focus on privacy issues, particularly those related to the Internet. Privacy is “an important issue and is growing in importance,” said Ohlhausen. There’s a multitude of new technologies that “bring new challenges to the consumer protection side,” she said. She also said that in bad economic times, more scams begin to emerge, something which she said the commission should keep an eye out for. Ohlhausen refused to discuss the agency’s antitrust investigation into Google’s advertising and search businesses. “Should I get confirmed, that is an issue that might come before me so I won’t comment on that,” she told us.
The FTC likely faces a daunting fiscal situation as Congress’ budgeting efforts will restrict resource allocation for the agency, Ohlhausen said. The commission will have to learn to do “more with less,” she said. Ohlhausen said the FTC’s framework for a Do-Not-Track mechanism is an “interesting idea” but warned that it’s important to get the details right to be effective. She wouldn’t say whether she advocated such a framework, adding that the comment period is ongoing.