FTC Uses ‘Big Data’ Debate To Push `Privacy by Design’

A growing national debate over “big data” has become the Federal Trade Commission’s latest vehicle for pushing “privacy by design”—a consumer protection policy that generally isn’t enforceable under the agency’s existing authority.

The FTC was among parties that recently weighed in on big data issues as part of a Department of Commerce review of a two-year-old legislative proposal from the White House to beef up U.S. consumer privacy protections in the digital age.

At issue in the review is whether the proposed legislation, a “privacy bill of rights” for consumers, effectively deals with the emergence of big data, which involves ...