Response to FTC's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security

Stanford scholars respond to a federal RFC on commercial surveillance and data security, focusing on the intersection of automated decision-making and information privacy.
Executive Summary
In this response to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) advance notice on proposed rulemaking on commercial surveillance and data security, Stanford HAI scholars challenge the assumption that data minimization and purpose limitation principles are inherently barriers to innovation. They argue that companies must be held to high standards when building automated decision-making systems based on personal data and call for a shift away from the current data acquisition landscape, where companies are the primary stewards of consumers’ personal data. Instead, they advocate for data intermediaries and investment in public data infrastructure for automated decision-making that is more resilient and less dependent on private actors.







