Leading privacy watchdog groups lashed out at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for siding with the advertising industry as part of a government initiative to update consumer-data protections.
The organizations — which include the Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation — on Monday told FTC Chairman Joe Simons in a letter that the agency relied on a “self-serving study” by the ad industry to warn against a policy in which consumers are opted out of online advertising by default.
“Instead of squarely defending the privacy rights of consumers it really capitulates to a pro-industry position using industry research,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which joined the letter. “It removes what little credibility the FTC under Chairman Simons has.”
Photo: AFP
The FTC should be replaced as the agency responsible for protecting consumer privacy, Chester said.
“They’re incapable of standing up for the public and taking on these powerful interests,” he said. “We need a real watchdog, not a lapdog.”
Simons has vowed to make privacy and data security an enforcement priority and has called for legislation that would expand the agency’s authority.
Simons is leading the commission as it investigates Facebook Inc for possibly violating a privacy order imposed in 2011.
The FTC did not respond to a request for comment about the privacy groups’ criticism.
Early this month, the FTC submitted a comment to an arm of the US Department of Commerce as part of an initiative by US President Donald Trump’s administration to gather public input on ways to protect consumer privacy and data online.
The agency said giving consumers control over collection and use of their data online could be beneficial, but could also be costly to implement and might have “unintended consequences.”
“For example, if consumers were opted out of online advertisements by default [with the choice of opting in], the likely result would include the loss of advertising-funded online content,” the FTC said.
That comment drew the ire of the privacy watchdog groups because, they say, the FTC based it on a survey commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance, which is made up of advertising associations.
Participating companies include some of the world’s biggest companies, such as Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google, General Motors Co and Walmart Inc.
“As federal privacy legislation is contemplated, the FTC should be a strong voice for advancing Americans’ privacy interests in a meaningful way, not parroting the advertising industry’s talking points,” said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
A spokesman for the Digital Advertising Alliance declined to immediately comment.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS