WASHINGTON — Developments in the digital regulatory environment in the United States should be watched closely by members of the adult entertainment industry, as the Democrat-controlled Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced it is pursuing rulemaking to intend to govern companies that “collect vast troves of consumer information, only a small fraction of which consumers proactively share.”
FTC is exploring cracking down on harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security concerns. Bloomberg Law reporter Andrea Vittorio notes that the commission wants to reduce data and privacy abuse risks. This includes data breaches, deception, manipulation, and other potential abuses reportedly instigated, to some degree, by the parent companies Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. — the multi-billion-dollar corporate parents of Google and Facebook, respectively.
The practice that the FTC seeks to correct is corporate surveillance or commercial surveillance. Companies want to work and enhance their profitability, which includes surveillance of employees, competitors, and (of course) their customers.
“Firms now collect personal data on individuals at a massive scale and in a stunning array of contexts,” said Lina M. Khan, chair of the FTC. “The growing digitization of our economy—coupled with business models that can incentivize endless hoovering up of sensitive user data and a vast expansion of how this data is used—means that potentially unlawful practices may be prevalent.”
“Our goal today is to begin building a robust public record to inform whether the FTC should issue rules to address commercial surveillance and data security practices and what those rules should potentially look like,” Khan added.
According to the FTC, one of the aspects that the agency seeks to investigate is what they’ve identified as allegations of bias and algorithmic discrimination.
“Some commercial surveillance practices may discriminate against consumers based on legally protected characteristics like race, gender, religion, and age,” the agency noted in the initial announcement of the rulemaking. “Some companies may use these categories to deny consumers access to housing, credit, employment, and other critical services.”
This is a noteworthy component of the rulemaking comment period because adult performers and industry professionals can approach the question of algorithmic discrimination from multiple perspectives. From shadowbanning to the impacts of algorithms on adult content sites, the rulemaking could be an invasive step forward to decide, from a general point of view granted, how data and privacy operate in the US.
FTC leadership also has expressed concern over the businesses that track all aspects of consumer behavior across websites and apps to deliver personalized ads and content. So, in many aspects, the FTC is preparing to take a swing at mainstream ad tech.
The FTC has yet to provide the link to submit comments to the Federal Register on Regulations.gov, but when the public comment period begins, any member of the public can “submit a comment weighing in on the rulemaking, the general topics, or a specific question.” For more information on the FTC’s pubilc comment period on commercial surveillance and data security rulemaking, click here. The FTC also is holding a virtual public forum on its rulemaking for commercial surveillance and data security practices on Thursday, September 8. For more information on the public forum, click here.
