Join TechFreedom and Cause of Action in DC, or online, for a luncheon discussion on September 12 about the Federal Trade Commission’s informal regulation of data security. Over the last decade, the FTC has settled nearly four dozen cases alleging that a failure to have “reasonable” data security constitutes an unfair or deceptive trade practice. The FTC has established no clear data security standards, and no court has ever ever ruled on the FTC’s assertions, but two pending litigations may finally finally allow the courts to rule on the legal validity of what the FTC calls its “common law of settlements” — and whether the agency can continue bringing such data security enforcement actions.
Geoff Manne, TechFreedom Senior Fellow and Director of the International Center for Law & Economics, will moderate a diverse panel of experts including:
- Justin Brookman, Center for Democracy & Technology
- Reed Rubinstein, Cause of Action
- Gerry Stegmeier, Wilson Sonsini and George Mason University School of Law
- Tom Sydnor, Association for Competitive Technology
- Berin Szoka, TechFredom
Before our panel, we’ll hear from Mike Daugherty, founder of LabMD, a small cancer diagnostic lab based in Atlanta. Represented by Cause of Action, a non-profit dedicated to government transparency and accountability, LabMD is defending against the FTC complaint, which focuses on the fact that, in 2007, a government-funded surveillance program was able to access a file containing patient information on LabMD’s network through the Limewire filesharing program. Mike will preview his new book, The Devil Inside the Beltway: The Shocking Exposé of the US Government’s Surveillance and Overreach into Cybersecurity, Medicine and Small Business, due out September 17. (Hint: the “devil” is a broader regulatory mentality.) More details about the LabMD case are available here.
The event is free, but space is limited so RSVP now if you plan to attend in person. A livestream of the event will be available here. You can follow the conversation on Twitter on the #LabMD hashtag.
When:
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Registration and coffee opens at noon, event and livestream at 12:30
Where:
100 Maryland Avenue NE
Washington D.C. 20002
Questions?
Email contact@techfreedom.org.
Read TechFreedom’s amicus brief in the recent Wyndham and POM Wonderful cases for more legal analysis of how the FTC’s extra-legal regulations.