Privacy advocate to be nominated for seat on Federal Trade Commission

President Biden will nominate privacy advocate Alvaro Bedoya for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the White House announced Monday.

Bedoya, a Georgetown Law professor and the founding director of the school’s Center on Privacy & Technology, will be filling a spot set to be vacated since Biden nominated Commissioner Rohit Chopra to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

Before Bedoya founded the privacy center, he served as the first chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. 

The nomination comes as the FTC continues to take aim at tech giants and their market power. 

In addition to the agency’s ongoing antitrust case against Facebook, under the helm of Chair Lina Khan the Democratic-controlled commission has taken action to rescind policy statements guiding the regulatory agency’s enforcement practices. 

A source familiar with the matter confirmed Biden’s intention to nominate Bedoya earlier Monday ahead of the official announcement. 

News of the expected nomination comes just a couple of days before the FTC’s scheduled open commission meeting on Wednesday. 

Anti-monopoly group American Economic Liberties Project cheered Bedoya’s nomination to the FTC. 

“Bedoya has spearheaded important research into surveillance and shined a light on the ways this technology is used to exploit and endanger communities of color. As a commissioner, we expect him to be an aggressive advocate against corporate concentration and monopoly,” executive director Sarah Miller said in a statement. 

FTC Chair Lina Khan, another Biden nominee to the commission, congratulated Bedoya on his nomination. 

“Alvaro’s expertise on surveillance and data security and his longstanding commitment to public service would be enormously valuable to the Commission as we work to meet this moment of tremendous need and opportunity. I wish him the very best in his confirmation process,” Khan said in a statement.

Morgan Chalfant contributed. Updated at 4:30 p.m.