On December 1, 2010, the FTC released its preliminary Staff Report titled, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change.” The report provides a brief overview of the FTC’s privacy regulation and enforcement efforts, discusses the main concepts and themes that emerged from the FTC’s series of privacy roundtables, and proposes a three-part privacy framework that would apply to online and offline commercial entities that collect and use certain types of consumer data.
The FTC is asking interested parties to submit comments on the proposed framework. An appendix to the Report contains numerous questions for parties to address in their comments. Comments are due by January 31, 2011, and can be submitted electronically at this website.
A more detailed analysis of the Staff Report can be found in our client alert.
