EPIC, Coalition Urge Swift Confirmation of Alvaro Bedoya to FTC

EPIC and coalition of organizations urged the Senate Commerce Committee today to ensure a quick confirmation of Professor Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. President Biden nominated Bedoya, the founding director of the Georgetown Center on Privacy & Technology, to serve as member of the FTC in September. “Professor Bedoya has been at the forefront of bringing the real-world harm of data exploitation and misuse to light and holding technology companies to account,” the letter reads. “We believe that it is essential he is swiftly confirmed so he can bring his significant experience and expertise on technology and civil rights to further the FTC’s mission to protect competition and consumers.” As a legal scholar and advocate, Bedoya has exposed the harms and biases of facial recognition technology and argued for legislation that would prevent predatory and discriminatory targeting of online ads. Bedoya is the author of Privacy as a Civil Right, in which he details how “the burdens of government surveillance have fallen overwhelmingly on the shoulders of immigrants, heretics, people of color, the poor, and anyone else considered ‘other’” and argues that privacy must be understood as a “shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive.” Bedoya previously served as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. Bedoya will succeed Commissioner Rohit Chopra when confirmed by the Senate.