Technology Blog
The FTC Is on the Front Lines of Tech Innovation & Regulation
The FTC has been hard at work over the past few years. Part of the agency's mission has been to build internal muscles to better anticipate how existing and emerging technologies can harm consumers and competition. This is why the FTC established the Office of Technology (OT), a first in the agency's 110-year history. OT's work has become an indelible part of the agency, an acknowledgment of how deeply technology is ingrained across the economy, not just sequestered to "big tech."
At the core of this work are the people who make it possible. Thank you my OT colleagues,[1] the FTC career staff,[2] leadership,[3] and countless communities[4] who have and will continue to support the FTC's mission.
Taking a moment to reflect, here are some tech-related programmatic advances that staff across the agency[5] have contributed to.
This work and our team are a testament to the power of public service. There's no key performance indicator or line item on an income statement that is as meaningful as tangibly improving and protecting the lives of the American people. The FTC is one of the rare places that has the mission, authorities, and talented staff to hold outsized corporate power to account and enforce the law. While this is just a snapshot of the agency's longstanding commitment to its mission, it highlights how mighty the FTC can be. Here's to the work ahead.
1 Thank you to the brilliant, relentlessly scrappy, and talented colleagues, past and present, who built the Office of Technology and team CTO, who have made the (allegedly) impossible possible. As adaptable and resourceful as raccoons, you have navigated unfamiliar and complex situations and can turn meager scraps into a banquet to benefit the American people.
2 Thank you to the Bureaus and Office career staff for establishing and standing up the team and for helping to integrate our team in initiatives and matters across the agency.
3 This includes the Chair, Commissioners, Bureau and Office directors, division managers, and staff leads.
4 This includes the many academics, researchers, practitioners, investigative journalists, and civil society advocates whose engagement and invaluable contributions have positively impacted the agency's work.
5 This includes the many dedicated staff technologists, investigators, attorneys, economists, and analysts who work on cross-agency initiatives.