"As the nation's foremost consumer protection agency, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is the first line of defense for consumers when it comes to privacy," Consumers Union Consumer Privacy and Technology Policy Director Justin Brookman writes. "This naturally leads to an important question: What does the FTC need to grapple with a force like Facebook?" In this post for Privacy Perspectives, Brookman, a former policy director of the FTC's Office of Technology Research and Investigation, uses recent news about Facebook's 2011 consent decree with the FTC as a lens into the agency's regulatory powers, how it works with companies that are in a consent decree, and what the FTC needs to be a more effective enforcement authority in the U.S. 
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