LAS VEGAS — Republican Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen disagrees with the notion sometimes espoused by her fellow commissioner, Democrat Julie Brill, that “more cops on the beat” are better when it comes to enforcement, particularly with respect to data collection practices. Speaking during a panel discussion on privacy  at the Consumer Technology Association’s CES conference, Commissioner Ohlhausen said that if the FCC “adopts a very different sort of enforcement standard” from that of the Federal Trade Commission, “people who are effectively competing with each other” will face different requirements.

“I don’t agree that two cops on the beat is better … if they are have very different rule books,” Commissioner Ohlhausen said.  She added that as long as companies are “clear” in informing consumers that “we might be collecting your data,” she doesn’t see why there would be a problem.

Responding to a question about the possible recourse for the FTC in dealing with a security breach that led to the hacking and posting of a home monitoring video feed to mock a teenager appearing in the video, Commissioner Ohlhausen said that the agency has not pursued such breaches on the basis of “dignity harms,” but she suggested that there might be safety concerns and other avenues of recourse in such a situation.

Panelist Mike Hintze, chief privacy counsel at Microsoft Corp., said that out of a sense of “fairness” and because “it’s the right thing to do,” Microsoft generally applies higher privacy requirements imposed in one country to other jurisdictions.

“If I need a statement [in the company’s privacy terms] for a German law, I’m not going to leave it out in other jurisdictions,” Mr. Hintze said.  However, he acknowledged, there are exceptions, such as the “right to be forgotten” under European Union law, requiring search engines to suppress search results at the request of the person named in the search terms, under some circumstances.  Given different values in the U.S. regarding freedom of expression and access to information, Microsoft has not imported the right to be forgotten provisions to the U.S., he said.  “But those are exceptions,” he added.

Discussing the privacy code of conduct developed by the automobile industry for connected cars, Hilary Cain, director–technology and innovation policy at Toyota Motor Corp., said that the “questions” raised by some parties about the collection and use of connected vehicle data were “reasonable,” but that the “concerns” about those issues were not.

In working toward the code, the industry found that consumers “didn’t want us sharing [collected information] with insurance companies and law enforcement,” and that they were “concerned we were going to blast [location-related] ads while they’re driving.”  In those areas of concern, the industry agreed that members wouldn’t do those things without consent, she added.

Privacy disclosures will be available on vehicle manufacturers’ websites, she said, rather than just being another paper in the huge stack of documents consumers must generally sign when purchasing a car. —Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily