In a follow up to our previous post “Privacy Continues to be Top of Mind Issue With President Biden’s State of the Union Address and Movement on FTC Nominee Today,” the Senate confirmed Alvaro Bedoya as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission which provides Democrats 3-2 control over the agency’s enforcement activities and objectives.  The Senate vote was a 50 Yeas/50 Nays split along party lines with Vice President Harris’ vote as the tiebreak.

President Biden had previously nominated Bedoya, a privacy scholar with interests in surveillance and data security, to fill Commissioner Chopra’s seat.  As Commissioner, likely priorities for Bedoya include the FTC’s enforcement of various privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which could further impact litigations brought under those statutes.

With a majority in hand and all commissioner seats filled, this may indicate a favorable time for Democrats to move forward with rulemaking, including in the realm of data privacy and cybersecurity.  As a reminder, earlier in the year Commissioner Wilson had indicated opposition to FTC action on data privacy, facial recognition and AI.  This was following the FTC’s December 2021 notice that it was “considering initiating a rulemaking under Section 18 of the FTC Act to curb lax security practices, limit privacy abuses, and ensure that algorithmic decision-making does not result in unlawful discrimination.”