Biden to nominate Georgetown law professor Alvaro Bedoya, who focuses on privacy issues, to be a commissioner at the FTC
Alvaro Bedoya has spearheaded pivotal research into how the government's use of facial recognition software hurts America's most marginalized Source: The White House .
Washington PostDrew Harwell
Context & Ripple Effects
Biden is filling out the commission he began reshaping in March, when he moved to nominate Lina Khan and later elevated her to the chair's office after her Senate confirmation. The pick of Alvaro Bedoya adds a distinct lane to that slate: where Khan arrived via the tech antitrust movement, Bedoya built his profile at Georgetown researching how government facial recognition use falls hardest on marginalized communities.
The seat matters because it was vacated by Rohit Chopra, and the nominee who ultimately fills it can decide whether the agency holds a Democratic majority — which is exactly what happened when the Senate later confirmed Bedoya by a party-line 51-50 vote. His subsequent work, including pushing the FTC to hire child psychologists to study social media's effects on kids, shows how the privacy mandate translates once seated.
First-order effects
The FTC's vacant commissioner slot moves toward a privacy specialist, giving the agency's consumer-protection arm a champion whose published research centers facial recognition's impact on marginalized groups rather than competition policy alone.
Big Tech companies already facing an activist-minded FTC under Chair Lina Khan now confront a second commissioner whose expertise targets surveillance practices, broadening the range of conduct likely to draw scrutiny.
Second-order effects
Companies selling biometric identification tools to government agencies face a regulator whose academic work documented those systems' disparate harms, raising the odds privacy questions enter FTC enforcement alongside antitrust ones.
Privacy advocacy organizations gain an institutional foothold inside the agency, shifting the balance of the FTC's agenda away from pure market-concentration cases toward data-practice investigations.
Third-order effects
If the Khan-plus-Bedoya pairing holds through confirmations, the FTC structurally becomes both the antitrust and the privacy watchdog for the tech sector, concentrating two formerly separate regulatory agendas in one five-member body — with a one-vote margin showing how contested that consolidation is.
A commissioner whose research treats surveillance as a civil-rights issue points the FTC toward regulating data practices as harms to identifiable communities, a framing that would outlast any single case if it hardens into agency doctrine.
The trend: Biden's FTC appointments are deliberately assembling a commission that pairs Big Tech antitrust with a privacy-and-surveillance mandate, making the agency the central venue for US tech accountability.
It is the honor of my life to be nominated to serve on the FTC. When my family landed at JFK in 1987 with 4 suitcases and a grad student stipend, this was not what we expected. Thank you @JoeBiden and @linakhanFTC, thank you Sima, my love, mom, dad, Pablo, our families. Vamos.
Congratulations to Alvaro Bedoya. His expertise on surveillance and commitment to public service would be enormously valuable to the FTC as we work to meet this moment of tremendous need & opportunity. I wish him the very best in the confirmation process. https://www.whitehouse.g…
Alvaro Bedoya brings a deep expertise in privacy and he knows that marginalized communities are particularly vulnerable to harmful surveillance. I applaud President Biden for nominating him to serve at the Federal Trade Commission and look forward to his swift confirmation. https…
Nominating my @GeorgetownLaw colleague @alvarombedoya for @FTC Commissioner is an inspired choice. He is one of the top privacy experts in the US, specifically on the disproportionate impact of lack of privacy & surveillance on communities of color. https://www.whitehouse.gov/...
.@alvarombedoya is a champion for privacy/civil rights, & will be a powerful voice in reining in Big Tech's abuse & protecting consumers. I look forward to the Senate taking up his nomination & putting into place a Commission ready & willing to fight for consumers & competition. …
This is the best news. Congratulations to my friend and former/future colleague @alvarombedoya. The Commission and the American people will be so lucky to have your intellect, your passion, and your integrity at the FTC. Vamos! https://twitter.com/...
Congratulations to long-time COC ally @alvarombedoya on his nomination for commissioner at the @FTC! This nomination furthers the call to tackle #AntiTrust & privacy issues with a racial justice approach. Thank you @POTUS for listening to our demands. https://www.axios.com/...
This is SUCH a great appointment to the FTC! @alvarombedoya is a superstar, substantive and principled. *Standing and applauding* https://twitter.com/...
What a fantastic pick for @FTC commissioner. @alvarombedoya brings both a deep understanding and a wealth of experience on today's most pressing #privacy issues. A hearty and well-deserved congratulations, my friend. https://www.axios.com/...
This former-FTCer and current-colleague of @alvarombedoya is over the moon. Alvaro is exactly who the FTC needs at this critical moment. He will lead on privacy but as importantly help the agency better protect people of color, immigrants, and people living in poverty. https://tw…
Bedoya was behind Color of Surveillance, an annual conference focused on how corporate and government surveillance tends to first and disproportionately target people of color. To me, one of the most informative days of the year. He's a privacy giant. https://twitter.com/...
This is the best news ever. @alvarombedoya is an amazing and deeply principled person and a personal hero. Nobody has done more to reframe the privacy conversation around equity and justice than Alvaro has. Beyond exciting!! https://twitter.com/...
This is fantastic news. Alvaro is an immensely talented attorney and privacy advocate who will be a champion for consumers and workers at the FTC. I look forward to working together to restore competition in our economy and protect Americans' privacy. https://www.axios.com/...
@alvarombedoya This is a big deal. Bedoya is a major voice on privacy and surveillance both inside and outside Washington. He's been shouting about stalkerware, facial recognition and creepy tech abuses for years. “He's never seen privacy as a left or right issue” https://www.was…
This is great news for the privacy community and for the merger of competition and privacy policy at the FTC. Couldn't ask for a better working majority at the agency. https://www.axios.com/...
I literally just said “NO SHIT?!” out loud and i am sitting on my laptop in a public park. Congrats @alvarombedoya and more importantly congrats the world cuz we need people at the FTC who are serious about human rights and addressing the harms of surveillance https://twitter.com…