Consumer Advocates Urge Lawmakers to Push for Creation of US DPA, More FTC Power

States is one of the few democracies in the world that does not have a federal data protection agency, even though the original proposal for such an institution emerged from the U.S. in the 1970s," wrote the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Privacy Information Center and U.S. Public Interest Research Group in the Wednesday letter. They said the FTC should support the creation of such an agency. The groups urged the agency to continue to uphold Privacy Shield, the trans-Atlantic data transfer framework, and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The commission, the letter said, has approved too many deals -- including Google's acquisitions of DoubleClick (see 1612190037) and Nest, and Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp (see 1609220031) -- that the groups said failed to protect privacy. The FTC must use its antitrust power to block such deals that concentrate data and endanger privacy, they said. Not only should the FTC seek more legislative authority to protect privacy, it also should bring more actions over unfair trade practices, the groups said. "The unworkable 'notice and choice' approach fails to provide meaningful privacy protections, and simply produces vague privacy policies." Instead, the FTC's unfairness authority can provide "substantive" protections and reduce identity thefts, data breaches and financial fraud, the letter said. Other suggestions include enforcing existing consent orders, incorporating "important" public suggestions into proposed settlements, requiring baseline privacy standards in settlements and increasing transparency over the complaint process. The letter was addressed to House Commerce Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla.