FTC chief to gadget industry: Protect consumer privacy

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS

While consumer electronics companies are celebrating a coming bonanza of health trackers, connected cars and “smart” home appliances, the head of the Federal Trade Commission is pressing the tech industry to protect consumer privacy.

Powerful networks of data sensors and connected devices, dubbed the “Internet of Things,” will collect a vast trove of user information that represents “a deeply personal and startlingly complete picture of each of us” — including our finances, health and even religious leanings, said Edith Ramirez, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, on Tuesday at the big consumer-electronics trade show known as International CES.

Connected consumer devices represent a growing market worth billions of dollars. A host of “smart” TVs, health monitors and other gadgets are on display during the weeklong show in Las Vegas. Ramirez urged the global electronics companies, Internet giants and tech startups at CES to make data security a priority as they build new products. She also called on companies to give consumers more control over how their data are used, and to collect only the data necessary for a product to perform its function.