Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen sent a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration this week on the tension between privacy advocates’ push for officials to support Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) limiting companies’ ability to collect, retain and use data and the potential value to be gained from maximizing the benefits of big data. While FIPPs call for companies to explain to consumers why data is being used and to gain their consent, big data can yield insights unforeseen at the time of collection. Ohlhausen called for strategies such as de-identification to bridge the gap. Meanwhile, LabMD has asked a judge to sanction the FTC for allegedly having a secretive relationship with the source of a key piece of evidence in the data breach case against the company.
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