Congress has given the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the power to implement consumer protection regulations. The FTC is an independent agency with a mission of shielding consumers, regulating activities that impede competition among businesses, and enhancing organizational performance (Lowry et al., 2017; Newman, 2019). An FTC assessment can give a clear picture of the agency’s efforts to perform its mandate of enforcing consumer protection regulations.
FTC’s website provides information on how the federal agency profits consumers and the frameworks of its operations. The agency deals with issues that influence the economic life of consumers, the Americans. Lowry et al. (2017) elaborate that consumers are shielded from unjust and devious practices in the business environment. FTC works out policies and programs for consumers and businesses to encourage competition and uphold consumers’ welfare.
The federal requirement is that personal information held by federal agencies should not be disclosed without authorization. The Privacy Act of 1974 allows people to review their private information, make corrections, and be consulted if their information is to be disclosed (Hoofnagle, 2016). The information from FTC’s website aligns with these requirements as one of their priorities is to protect consumers and manage information technology. It is within the organization’s jurisdiction to ensure that consumers’ information is not shared without their permission to challenge legitimate business practices. The agency’s Senior Agency Official for Privacy should ensure that the Privacy Act of 1974 is implemented to safeguard individuals’ data in a system of records (Newman, 2019). As an agency, they could also create and execute an agency-wide program that ensures information security for information systems that run the agency’s operations. The agency could also determine proper guidelines that guarantee the privacy of individual information in electronic form.
In conclusion, individuals should access and adjust their information freely, and the FTC ought to ensure the privacy of any personal information. To promote government policies that shield consumers and facilitate competition, FTC must have policy approaches that protect private information. FCT should implement policies that not only prevent unfair and dishonest practices but also ensure consumers’ privacy.
References
Lowry, P. B., Dinev, T., & Willison, R. (2017). Why security and privacy research lies at the centre of the information systems (IS) artefact: Proposing a bold research agenda. European Journal of Information Systems, 26(6), 546-563.
Hoofnagle, C. J. (2016). Federal Trade Commission privacy law and policy. Cambridge University Press.
Newman, P. (2019). Personnel is Policy: Regulatory Capture at the Federal Trade Commission, 1914–1929. Journal of Institutional Economics, 15(6), 1037-1053. Web.