FTC Budget Proposal Highlights Privacy, Security Protection
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz stressed planned further efforts for consumer protection, in testimony to a Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services hearing on the commission’s fiscal 2011 budget. The FTC will take “a very close look” at Google’s Street View vehicles having collected “payload data” from German Wi-Fi networks, he said Thursday.
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The commission will continue to emphasize consumer privacy protection and data security, Leibowitz said. The FTC requested $314 million to support 1,207 “full-time equivalent” employees for fiscal 2011, increases of $22.3 million and 40 employees from 2010. Leibowitz noted that the agency’s current staff is “considerably” smaller than at its peak in 1979, when it had about 1,800 full-time equivalents to serve a much smaller population.
The FTC is examining consumer privacy more broadly, especially in light of emerging technologies and business models including social networking, cloud computing, online behavior advertising and mobile marketing, Leibowitz said. The commission will keep working to educate children about online safety and help them think critically about advertising, he said. The FTC has worked to protect children by filing more than a dozen lawsuits to enforce the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, obtaining more than $3.2 million in civil penalties for law violations, he said. The commission seeks to devote significant resources to protecting competition in areas like technology, Leibowitz said. It has held workshops about the future of news, to explore how to improve media competition to protect consumers’ welfare, he noted.
Google representatives have talked with FTC officials about its data collection, Leibowitz said. Letters from House Commerce Committee leaders seek the commission’s response by June 2. An enormous amount of information was collected, said subcommittee ranking member Susan Collins, R-Me.
Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., asked what the commission has done about behavioral marketing. The FTC seeks to bring enforcement actions against violations of consumer protections, but it’s still studying the matter, Leibowitz said. Asked by Collins how the commission can publicize cyberscams and educate small businesses about cybercrime, he said the FTC has worked with state attorneys general and organized workshops and consumer education initiatives.