June, 13 2024, 09:26am EDT

30+ civil rights organizations call on FTC Chair Khan to put privacy protections in place before she runs out of time
Today, over 30 organizations advocating for racial justice, privacy, and civil rights released a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and Commissioners to finally put policies in place to regulate commercial surveillance and data collection. Signers of the letter include Fight for the Future, Demand Progress Education Fund, Center on Race and Digital Justice, Athena Coalition, Free Press, MediaJustice, and Consumer Federation of America.
Frustrated with the lack of action since the agency announced an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on these issues in 2022, the organizations implore the FTC to immediately take the next step and put forth the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security (NPRM) before the current term expires in six months.“The volume, scope, and variety of sensitive information being collected and exploited has increased. It's become more common for corporations to surveil individuals that they don't have a commercial relationship with. Amazon’s Ring surveillance devices collect biometric data from bystanders going about their daily lives. Meta tracks individuals as they browse the web regardless of whether they have an account, collecting and sharing detailed information with its Facebook platform,” the organizations say in the letter.
The letter highlights the exploitation of sensitive personal information, the ability to monitor and track ones’ location, the disproportionate threats faced by communities of color, and the impacts of ‘unfair and deceptive’ surveillance and data collection on data security. It goes on to say that, given the harms, it’s incumbent on the FTC to move forward with putting forth policies that protect everyone: “ultimately, any rulemaking must ensure that people––regardless of race, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, workplace, or income––retain total and not illusory control of their personal data and cannot be pressured by personal circumstance or lack of accessible alternatives to give that control away.”Click here to read the full letter.
The complete the list of organizations signed on to the letter: Fight for the Future, Access Now, Advocacy For Principled Action In Government, Aspiration, Athena Coalition, Center on Race and Digital Justice, Constitutional Alliance, Consumer Federation of America, Demand Progress Education Fund, For the Many, Free Press, Generation Justice, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Just Futures Law, Line Break Media, May First Movement Technology, Media Alliance, MediaJustice, Oakland Privacy, Open Markets Institute, Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD.net), PDX Privacy, Presente.org, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Project On Government Oversight, Restore The Fourth, RootsAction.org, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, The Civil Liberties Defense Center, The Greenlining Institute, WA People's Privacy, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and Yale Privacy Lab.
Fight for the Future issued the following statement. Please attribute it to the Director of Fight for the Future, Evan Greer (she/her/they): “We’ve been waiting two years for the FTC to make good on its commitment to protect against harmful surveillance and data corporate practices—yet nothing has been done. We can’t keep waiting, we’re running out of time with roughly six months left in the current term. If the FTC plans to follow through with putting direly needed privacy protections in place to shield everyday people from the overreaches of Big Tech, Chair Khan and the Commissioners need to take immediate action. We’ve waited way too long for the FTC to prioritize our basic human right to privacy and safety in our digital lives. It needs to act now, while it still can.”
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
(508) 368-3026LATEST NEWS
'For the Workers, Not the Billionaires': Bernie Sanders to Join Nationwide Rallies for May Day
"Bernie knows that when the working class—labor, immigrants, community members—stand together, we are force that can defeat any bad boss," said the Philadelphia chapter of the AFL-CIO.
Apr 29, 2025
As U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders continues his nationwide Fighting Oligarchy tour, the longtime economic justice advocate is joining forces with organizers of another major mass mobilization against the "Billionaire Agenda" that has left working families struggling to afford healthcare, education, and the rising cost of living.
On Thursday, one of more than 1,100 May Day rallies will be held at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sanders (I-Vt.) will join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
Announcing that Sanders will speak at the rally at 4:00 pm Thursday, the union said on Facebook that "Bernie knows that when the working class—labor, immigrants, community members—stand together, we are force that can defeat any bad boss... When workers fight, workers win!"
As Common Dreams reported last week, labor unions and advocacy groups are planning rallies in nearly 1,000 cities across all 50 states to mark May 1 or May Day, which commemorates the struggles and victories of the labor movement throughout history.
The events are taking place more than two months into Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy tour, during which he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have drawn crowds of thousands in Republican districts in Nebraska, Iowa, Idaho, and other states—addressing a total of 250,000 people, about a third of whom are not registered Democrats, according to Sanders' office.
Advocates say the tour has demonstrated the broad appeal of the progressive lawmakers' prioritizing of issues that impact working families, their demand that the Democratic Party aggressively fight the Trump agenda in any way that they can, and their rejection of billionaires' and corporations' encroachment on the U.S. political system and hoarding of wealth.
Like the Fighting Oligarchy tour, the May Day 2025 rallies aim to "unite working people across race, immigration status, and geography," according to organizers, with attendees demanding:
- An end to the billionaire takeover and government corruption, including tech mogul Elon Musk's spearheading of efforts to slash hundreds of thousands of federal jobs and dismantle agencies;
- Full funding for public schools, healthcare, and housing;
- Protection and expansion of Medicaid, Social Security, and other essential programs that have been attacked by Musk and Trump;
- A halt to attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans, and other targeted communities; and
- Strong union protections, fair wages, and dignity for all workers.
After the May Day rally, Sanders is expected to hold events in Harrisburg and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—located in two of the state's most competitive swing districts that are represented by Republican Reps. Scott Perry and Ryan Mackenzie.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump 'Took a Hatchet' to Major US Climate Report by Dismissing All Its Authors
"The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits," said one person who was working on the 6th National Climate Assessment.
Apr 29, 2025
Hundreds of scientists and experts working on the National Climate Assessment were dismissed by the Trump administration via email on Monday, casting doubt on the future of the federal government's flagship climate report, which was slated to come out by 2028.
On Monday, those working on the 6th version of the report received an email from the Trump administration that the scope of the assessment is being "reevaluated in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990"—in reference to the legislation that mandated the creation of the National Climate Assessment.
"We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their roles," continued the email, the text of which was included in a Monday statement from the group the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Today, the Trump administration senselessly took a hatchet to a crucial and comprehensive U.S. climate science report by dismissing its authors without cause or a plan," said Dr. Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists and an author for the 6th National Climate Assessment (NCA) on the coasts chapter, said on Monday. "People around the nation rely on the NCA to understand how climate change is impacting their daily lives already and what to expect in the future. While not policy prescriptive, the findings of previous reports underscore the importance of cutting heat-trapping emissions and investing in climate resilience to protect communities and the economy."
"The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits at the expense of people's health and the nation's economic well-being," added Cleetus.
Since entering office, Trump has signed executive orders aimed at bolstering oil, gas, and coal and installed Cabinet members with ties to the fossil fuel industry.
The assessment, which is required by Congress, has been released every few years since 2000 and gives a rundown of how global warming is impacting different sectors of the economy, ecosystems, and communities. The energy and environment focused outlet E&E Newsreported Tuesday that the report is "seen by experts as the definitive body of research about how global warming is transforming the country."
The report last came out in 2023. That National Climate Assessment established that the "effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region" of the United States. The report's authors warned that absent deeper cuts in fossil fuel emissions and accelerated adaption efforts compared to what's currently underway, "severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow."
Earlier in April, the Trump administration enacted cuts to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which oversees the production of the National Climate Assessment.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'This Will Gut the FTC': Republicans Push Musk-Backed Plan to Kill Key Antitrust Law
"Jim Jordan and House Judiciary Republicans are directly undermining both current and future litigation against the monopolies that gouge and censor Americans."
Apr 29, 2025
House Republicans are set to consider legislation on Wednesday that experts say would effectively eliminate a law that gives the Federal Trade Commission sole authority to protect the American public from corporations engaging in "unfair methods of competition."
The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), released the bill Monday as part of a sweeping, filibuster-proof reconciliation package that Republicans are looking to pass as soon as next month.
The new bill states that "all FTC antitrust actions, all FTC antitrust employees, all FTC antitrust assets, and all FTC antitrust funding" must be "transferred to the attorney general." The proposal is virtually identical to Republican legislation that Elon Musk, a lieutenant of President Donald Trump and the richest person in the world, endorsed earlier this year.
Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, observed Monday that the House Judiciary Committee measure is "not just a bill to change the office locations and reporting structures." Specifically, Stoller noted that the bill doesn't explicitly transfer to the Justice Department the FTC's authority under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to combat "unfair methods of competition."
"That authority," Stoller wrote, "remains with an agency that has no staff and no capacity to litigate, which means it could die."
Alvaro Bedoya, who is currently engaged in a legal fight to get his job back at the FTC after Trump fired him and another Democratic commissioner last month, echoed Stoller's concerns, writing on social media that the Republican bill "doesn't transfer the laws that FTC enforces, or authority to enforce those laws."
"This will gut the FTC," Bedoya wrote, noting that the agency's legal action against pharmacy benefit managers—pharmaceutical industry middlemen—would likely be among the casualties of the Republican bill, given that "the sole law that the FTC alleges was broken in all three counts was that core prohibition against 'unfair methods of competition.'"
Stoller pointed out in his blog post that Section 5 is also used "in the antitrust case against Amazon" and "another case against Corteva/Syngenta over exclusive dealing in seeds and chemicals." It was also "the authority used to ban noncompete agreements," he wrote.
"These cases, as well as every consent decree ever reached under Section 5, are now at risk," Stoller added.
The House Judiciary Committee is slated to mark up the legislation on Wednesday afternoon, starting at 2:00 pm ET.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement Monday that the measure as a whole is "laden with language attempting to protect corporate wrongdoers."
"One provision appears to effectively eliminate the FTC pro-competition division," said Gilbert. "Another set of provisions makes significant changes to the already overreaching Congressional Review Act. One measure says that major rules that raise revenue go into effect only if Congress proactively approves them. Another section says for the next four years Congress has to affirmatively approve rules for them not to expire."
"If made law," she warned, "this would sign a death warrant for a slew of important consumer, worker, and environmental protections."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular