FTC Continues to Enforce Privacy Laws

Much of the federal government may be in “deregulatory” mode under the current administration, but the FTC isn’t. The agency has shown a commitment to the continued enforcement of privacy laws. A recent Fox Rothschild memo explores key takeaways from recent FTC enforcement actions:

• “The FTC under Andrew Ferguson will continue to enforce privacy violations under it’s mandate. This will not stop.
• The FTC will continue to enforce COPPA violations, including those involving the collecting, sharing and advertising using data collected from children without parental consent.
• Precise geolocation is sensitive data and you need consent for it. More specifically, you need parental consent when you collect the data as part of a product directed at children.
• To get this consent, you need to specifically say that you are collecting precise geolocation data. You can’t just say “product use information” or “browsing information.”

While we aren’t likely to see major AI regulation at the federal level, AI does present unique privacy concerns. How AI gathers user data, the nature of this data, and the ways this data is shared internally and externally all factor into a company’s privacy obligations. With privacy enforcement still a priority at the federal level, and with a swath of state privacy laws on the books or being passed, compliance teams should have privacy issues on their radar.