The FTC indicated that it will use its rulemaking authority under the FTC Act’s Section 18 to create a new rule that will likely seek to rein in broad data collection and use.

In October 2021, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter made two speeches in which she expressed a desire to move beyond the FTC’s “notice-and-consent” framework to address broader surveillance practices that underlie the digital advertising economy, specifically by applying “bright-line purpose and use restrictions that minimize the data that can be collected and how it can be deployed.”

Last month, a group of eight Republican lawmakers introduced H.R. 837, the Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act 2007. The bill would give the Attorney General very broad authority to enact rules requiring Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to retain records so law enforcement could access their customers’ online activities.