Democrats urge FTC to begin privacy rulemaking

Nine U.S. Senate Democrats signed a letter calling on the Federal Trade Commission to commence a rulemaking process around data privacy, The Verge reports. Led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the group of lawmakers said a federal standard for privacy "is urgently needed" and FTC rulemaking should be done in parallel with efforts to draft a federal privacy law. Additionally, lawmakers encouraged the FTC to "take advantage of every tool in its toolkit to protect consumers’ privacy."