On December 12, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held a workshop to examine consumer injury in the context of privacy and data security. The motivation for the workshop, according to Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen, was to help the FTC better understand consumer informational injury, weigh effectively the benefits of intervention against its inevitable costs, and to help guide the future application of the substantial injury prong of the FTC’s unfairness standard. A variety of panelists from a wide range of backgrounds, including business, academia, and consumer advocacy, addressed questions such as how to best characterize these injuries, how to accurately measure such injuries and their prevalence, and what factors businesses and consumers consider when evaluating the trade-offs between providing information and potentially increasing their exposure to injuries.
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