The Long Path to Protecting Consumer Data: FTC Rules Explained

The Federal Trade Commission follows a longer, more complex rulemaking process than other federal agencies, constraining its ability to hold tech companies responsible for securing and protecting consumer data.

But with more breaches exposing consumer data, and no federal privacy law, some commissioners are showing a willingness to use this approach—which could take years—to write new national data protection rules.

Companies such as video-conferencing platform Zoom Video Communications Inc. and period-tracking app Flo Health Inc. have come under FTC scrutiny for misleading consumers about how secure or private their data is kept. Others, including Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., ...