FTC to hold PrivacyCon in Washington, DC, on January 14 to bring together privacy and security researchers with policymakers
The Federal Trade Commission will hold … David McCabe / The Hill : FTC to hold privacy summit in January Michael Cooney / Network World : Attention whitehats, The FTC wants you to lead new privacy, security push Robert Bartley / FierceCIO News : At new PrivacyCon event, FTC seeks input from industry
Context & Ripple Effects
PrivacyCon is the third move in the FTC's 2015 research build-out: after calling for strong data protections on connected devices in January (its IoT privacy report) and standing up the Office of Technology Research and Investigation that March (replacing its Mobile Tech Unit), the agency now wants an annual convening that puts academic researchers directly in front of its policymakers on January 14.
First-order effects
- Security researchers and whitehats get a formal channel into FTC policymaking — Network World's framing ('the FTC wants you') makes recruitment of outside expertise the explicit point of the event.
- Companies under FTC privacy jurisdiction get advance visibility into what the agency considers emerging harm areas, since PrivacyCon agendas telegraph enforcement interests before complaints are filed.
Second-order effects
- The Office of Tech Research and Investigation gains a steady intake pipeline: PrivacyCon gives it a recurring supply of external studies to convert into the broader big-data, payments, and IoT inquiries it was created to handle.
- Industry trade groups and consumer-facing firms face pressure to participate rather than cede the record — the same dynamic that later drew Apple, Google, Amazon, and Twitter execs to the Senate Commerce hearing stage (in 2018's executive testimony round) shows what happens when companies skip the convening and let others define the narrative.
Third-order effects
- PrivacyCon fits the FTC's longer pattern of substituting convenings, hearings, and research offices for absent legislation — the same playbook behind the 15-plus-city public hearing series announced in 2018 and the 2021 effort to strengthen privacy rules, including for children, without waiting on Congress.
- If the event becomes recurring, the researcher-to-regulator pipeline hardens into standing infrastructure, making academic findings a more direct input into US privacy enforcement than they were before 2015.
The trend: US privacy regulation is increasingly built by the FTC itself — through research offices, summits, and hearings — as a substitute for stalled congressional action.