EPIC to Congress: FTC Has Failed to Protect Privacy, New Data Protection Agency Urgently Needed

In advance of FTC oversight hearings, EPIC has sent a statement to both House and Senate Committees outlining the FTC's failure to protect consumer privacy and urging the creation of an independent Data Protection Agency in the United States. EPIC's recent Freedom of Information Act request revealed that there are there are over 26,000 complaints pending against Facebook. In the eight years since the FTC announced the consent order barring Facebook from making any misrepresentation about user privacy, the FTC has not taken a single enforcement action against the company. "The FTC is simply ignoring thousands of consumer privacy complaints about Facebook's ongoing business practices," EPIC said. EPIC launched the #EnforceTheOrder campaign to pressure the FTC to take enforcement action against Facebook. EPIC brought the original complaint to the FTC in 2009 that led to the consent order.