Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan told Newsmax on Friday that commercial surveillance in this country should be highly concerning to Americans, adding that her agency is out to ensure that companies pay the price when they get caught.
Khan discussed the issue on "Rob Schmitt Tonight" with guest host Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
The FTC recently made Amazon and a subsidiary pay $30 million for misusing Ring doorbell cameras and failing to delete Alexa recordings.
But Khan warned about companies using geo tracking to know where Americans are going and what they're doing.
"Companies today, tech companies, collect a staggering amount of people's highly personal data," Khan told Gaetz. "Companies are using this data to build highly detailed profiles and then buying and selling that data on a shadowy marketplace. And this really implicates people's privacy, it exposes them to all sorts of harms."
Khan said the FTC is on "the front lines" to protect Americans.
"More generally, we wanna make sure that when companies are caught illegally surveilling Americans, that they pay the price," Khan told Gaetz.
It's not just the fines but also making sure companies delete the information they've collected, including algorithms and models.
"I know there's a lot of concern out there about government surveillance; commercial surveillance is extremely concerning and people can buy that data ranging from foreign actors to foreign governments, and so it's something people should be highly concerned about."
Khan said this is happening in real time.
"There's a shadowy ecosystem of companies that are buying and selling Americans' sensitive data, and we need to make sure we have strong privacy rules and strong enforcers to protect Americans."
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