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Government United States Communications

Biden To Tap Privacy Hawk For FTC Post (axios.com) 35

President Biden will nominate Georgetown University law professor Alvaro Bedoya to be a Democratic commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, people familiar with the matter told Axios. From a report: Bedoya, founding director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown, will bring a bevy of experience on privacy issues to the FTC's work on tech. If confirmed, Bedoya will solidify the Democratic majority at the FTC with current commissioner Rohit Chopra set to leave the agency as Biden's nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bedoya previously was chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary privacy subcommittee and worked on issues including mobile location data and facial recognition.
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Biden To Tap Privacy Hawk For FTC Post

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  • this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DuroSoft ( 1009945 ) on Monday September 13, 2021 @12:10PM (#61792197) Homepage
    This is really great news. I don't recall ever seeing a "privacy hawk" get appointed to anything in the federal gov, so this could bring some real change.
    • Hopefully this bird doesn't get cooked.

    • Re:this (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday September 13, 2021 @12:22PM (#61792259)

      What will normally happen with peoples in such positions, their ideologies will often get moderated once they are are in a position where they need to implement such ideas.

      Unfortunately, for most politicians who actually care about the impact of their work, will often be coined a lair, or a flipflopper because real life has implementing based on ideology is going to lead to pure failure.

      Ideology looks good on paper, and may simulate well, also it is a good speaking point as it is often simple enough for people to understand, and often easy to get a majority to jump onto to. However real life, you need more than just Majority approval, also within that majority, there is a large group of people who fully don't grasp the consequences of such ideology. As well the minority who doesn't have that ideology, cant be constantly at war with them as well. As if a good size minority opposing you, your ideology is just not going to work.

      • Basically much like in Wargames the best move is to not play.

        • No, the correct move is to move in the direction of the ideology you feel is better. However not get fixated on it, and realize you may need to take a step back, so you can take two steps forward. Also, expect to do a lot of really hard work to implement the idea, and make sure you are implementing it fairly and justly. And not just to stroke your ego.

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        I think that's a comment about various particular ideologies rather than a generally true statement.

        OTOH, most widely disseminated ideologies tend to vastly over-simply they things they are dealing with. Privacy is home to a great many oversimplified ideologies.

        On the Gripping hand, what are his other characteristics? Being a "privacy hawk" is only a partial statement of what he supports, and I don't know the rest.

  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Monday September 13, 2021 @12:26PM (#61792275)

    Of course, I love that everybody in the western world seems to have gone pro-privacy now,
    when people like us were laughed at in the past.

    But: How did they all magically switch sides so quickly? Was it even five years?
    Why the sudden complete reversal? And across so many so different countries?
    What's behind this?
    Because knowing this things, that just sounds suspicious. Like there's a nasty catch.
    I'm just not buying it.
    Feeding one something very attractive is exactly the first step in every good con. So people are consumed by their own consumption and can't tell they're actually being played.

    What do you think?
    Is this the result of politicians finally realizing that the spying agencies of their own countries got them by the balls, and can make or destroy them with the knowledge the have about them, and need to be reigned in? (Then why make it a law for everyone?)

    (It's not like we can do anything other than sit it out anyway, can we? Or is anyone here planning on running the show in the next few years? ;)

    • by Dusanyu ( 675778 )
      I suspect sense this is the trade commission and not a intelligence committee the privacy he will be hawking is the ability to opt out of data analytics. but of course sense these big data collectors have mega lobbies noting will come out of it and it is just a "feel good move"
    • by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      I agree, it's great to feel superior to the unwashed masses, and then when they do start behaving differently acting like it's all a conspiracy so you can continue to act high and mighty lest your ego be damaged.
    • Regulatory fines are the only thing that get corporations in line. The EU enacted the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which took effect 25 May 2018 and it contains fines up to 4% of annual worldwide turnover. It also applies if data on EU citizens is processed abroad. It's had a positive effect across the world.

    • Some good points and questions there, to which I'd like to add: just a few years after Snowden, it seemed that people didn't care. Considering how much still (supposedly) gets posted to Facebook, they still don't care. But some politicians seem to, see GDPR...
  • Meanwhile, House Democrats released additional framework for their $3.5 trillion spending bill that includes raising the corporate tax rate to 26.5 percent for firms with $5 million+ in revenue. This increase totaling $2.9 trillion is part of a greater effort by Democrats to implement tax hikes.
    • by rossdee ( 243626 )

      What were corporate tax rates like 10 years ago?

      • A good bit higher. But, given that the U.S. corporate tax rate is already quite a bit higher than both the average for European countries and the average for Asian countries, this is quite unlikely a movement in the right direction.
        • FYI, the USA does not have a VAT like other nations.

          Only small biz actually pays taxes. If you actually FIXED the system of decades of entrenched corrupted tax dodging then you could set the tax rate at a real level; but instead we raise rates and plug a few loop holes which only works a little for a while until new holes are created.

  • by kmoser ( 1469707 ) on Monday September 13, 2021 @02:57PM (#61792951)
    Whose privacy? Citizens' or the government's?
  • An important post for someone who doesn't identify as having a vagina.
    Biden must be a SEXEEST PEEG !

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas l'Informatique. -- Bosquet [on seeing the IBM 4341]

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