Privacy Groups Blast U.S. FTC as Digital Ad Industry `Lapdog'

  • Groups respond to FTC comment to Trump initiative on privacy
  • FTC relied on ‘self-serving’ industry report, groups say
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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Leading privacy watchdog groups lashed out at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for siding with the advertising industry as part of a Trump administration initiative to update consumer-data protections.

The organizations, which include the Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told FTC Chairman Joe Simons in a letter Monday that the agency relied on a "self-serving study" by the ad industry to warn against a policy in which consumers are opted out of online advertising by default.