The Electronic Privacy Information Center has sued to force the Federal Trade Commission to disclose records about privacy complaints the agency receives, CNET is reporting.
The EPIC says the FTC has failed to act on many privacy complaints. "A large part of the privacy debate in the last couple of years has centered around industry claims that there are adequate systems in place to deal with privacy problems, and the FTC has always been identified as the agency that is set up to handle them," EPIC general counsel David Sobel tells CNET. "This is an attempt to monitor what is going on at the FTC in response to privacy problems, and in effect to test the claims that we have an adequate system in place."
And EPIC also says more aggressive steps should occur if the FTC has no effective ways to respond to privacy complaints or public concerns.
The FTC tells CNET its freedom of information office is working on a response to the EPIC request. EPIC filed its first information request under the Freedom of Information Act in June. That request, CNET says, included letters, e-mail, Web submission, faxes, and formal complaints.
CNET says EPIC told the FTC it was interested in alleged privacy violations by specific companies or organizations as well as requests for general assistance in a privacy case regardless of whether a specific group or company was involved.
