event we will reconvene at this time with a gentleman from new jersey for five minutes. >> thank you very much and good morning to the distinguished panel. i champion the consumer review fairness act in 2016 to protect consumers ability including social media. there has been influence in social media and much has changed since the ftc with the google investigation and asked the panel what is your view to maintain the competitive

market with consumer reviews? >> i hope this is recorded. >> as i alluded to in terms of competition we need good information that allows consumers to make the best choices but that really helps to spur competition we are looking to that statute. >> i think that is very beneficial and it was a violation but in addition to

make sure they express their opinions of that is clear to consumers to so they engaged in enforcement with warning letters to make sure they are labeled as such the fact you have required a disclaimer to have additional guidance on twitter or on online that people understand how they apply in the new economy as wel well. >> so just briefly thank you for your work that based upon

the fact there was a review of the orchestra at a wedding when there was a discussion that they had to sign a form that there could be no disparaging review online which appalls the american public. >> and i also want to share that is full provision that is passed on a bipartisan basis to allow them to every orchestra violation. >> without commenting if it is operating under a consent order does that affect the

assessment of penalties? >> typically violations of orders allow the ftc to seat from the court injunction that can have consumer refunds or penalties so we have discretion with the enforcement of orders have to be a top priority. >> as the ftc considers its investigation but i indicated the facebook actions leading up to the cambridge analytic hack constructed with the ftc in 2011 to strengthen my

belief that it has routinely violating its promise with consent before sharing information as members of the commission after i have reviewed the matter recognizing the gentlelady from california. >> last week we discussed governing to privacy with the telecommunications providers before they could share with unlimited third parties. but more broadly it is often the case with the online platform and to visit that

platform but on that website is that information to allow that third party to access user data so i believe a necessary part of that discussion could be addressing access with whom a consumer has no direct relationship. but with that independent third party data use. >> under the current authority if that is disclosed we may be frustrated to combat that. but with respect to any privacy legislation giving rights to know what it is used for if we were able to

implement that as these principles come from 20 years ago that would be effective for the marketplace. >> a basically is a unique business on -- legislation. >> we cannot solve all of these problems. this is why we need more tools and resources. >> but we have to be very specific in the legislation. >> many people know how to craft legislation better than me but to the extent you could provide the framework will allow us to be flexible how the market changes. nobody knew how the website trackers would be used. and it can be accepted between the user and the website.

ht tp protocol can ensure the online connection between consumers and how it is encrypted and as the security indicators to provide consistent meaningful consumer information the matter which browser you are using common indicators consistently could be a step toward increasing consumer understanding not only secure but also safe and does anybody have any thoughts although security indicators could promote consumer protection? >> with those advancements how they secure website traffic is a positive step in the marketplace we know from other

sectors with financial services encryption and higher standards continue to be far ahead of the individual economy i don't necessarily know what we can do from a law enforcement perspective but obviously companies that maintain data need to take steps to secure that data. >> i think it's important how we look at how consumers get information about the enforcement actions against browsers computers to not have the man in the middle attack. but if we paid attention to

all the that she. >> what we like to and that is what is causing a lot of wear what is secure in what is not and i am out of time. thank you two the gentlelady yields back in the gentleman from kentucky. >> for thank you for holding this meeting commissioner the last congresswoman i interviewed we had a series of bills that we put forward on process reform almost one year ago the commission announced it would look at a set of reforms for consumer protection investigation but it was reported of those competitive investigations as

well has there been progress made? >> yes there has been progress made we had a civil investigative demand reforms that i talked about at the beginning of my testimony and try to give recipients better guidance and information we reduced the civil investigative demand and gave more time to respond. we have gone through leadership and close a number of investigations but we also went through to look at all the data security investigations with privacy that we closed and we distilled from that lesson about what steps companies had taken that gave reasonable security and we issued that with updating guidance to give us ten additional lessons to supplement to start with. >> thank you and you have any comments on issues the

committee should be considering with process reform as well? >> also on the competition side one of the things that has been reported publicly is a merger investigation seems to have gotten longer according to some men on -- measures we are tracking to see how long they are taking and why they are taking that long allowing us to determine what we can do to make it more efficient and less burdensome. >> we have advertised and talke talked. never to gather any information on the phone but that concern that i have is these fake websites when you are seeking the information trying to engage with a hotel change to give a reservation

or confirmation it is just how we know the identity of a website. i know the committee is looking at how identities are confirmed but what tools can they used to confirm they are on a real website that they intended to go? i know the lock next to the site is not secure? >> talking about secure websites? >> just very briefly you asked about other process reforms i would be remiss not to bring up the sunshine act that law the way it operates today it inhibits our ability as a commission to talk to each

othe other. so i just for that. >> how was that detrimental? been back i'm not challenging you. >> sure. one example three of us want to talk together about an important issue or four of us but unless we publicly noticed that in advance we cannot meet and while there are some important meetings that take place that are noticed the daily back-and-forth can be important. >> the ability to informally meet without having to advance schedule a full commission meeting would be enormously helpful. >> that allows us to work through issues much more quickly and without delay as opposed to scheduling a formal meeting. >> the idea is if you take action it is noticed but we would have to vote.

>> we are talking about informal conversations not legal action. >> one commission is a step out of the room and then there can only be two instead of three and i have seen that before and they literally do that if they don't have the quorum but it does seem like talking about issues it is not an action that has been taken. >> i yield back now that chair recognizes the gentlelady from new york for five minutes. >> thank you for convening this hearing. a pleasant good morning to all commissioners and a special welcome to the ftc commissioners. your role is more important now than it has ever been the american people count on you

to protect their data and privacy promote competition and much more there are so many issues and changes happening under the ftc authority, i can say i am very anxious to hear your answers with the significant changes. i like to start with the issue of privacy and directed that question to the commissioner when it comes to privacy there are many changes that need to be made to protect american consumers over the past year discrimination online has been rapid resulting in the marginalization of communities. can you talk about the impact the lack of meaningful privacy protection has on consumers particularly those in underserved and low income communities? >> 50 years ago congress had a debate about secret databases making decisions about our lives and where we could live,

work and what loans we could take. we passed the fair credit reporting act in 1972 advance new levels of transparency to give consumers redress but in today's decision on -- digital economy decisions are made through data sets we never could have imagined it is no longer a manila folder. it is very hard to look at what was the data being used with machine learning and algorithms it is hard to audit and see when those mechanisms are reinforcing a bias rather than leading to more inclusion of the ftc has done work on big data issues and i'm concerned our existing laws to prevent discrimination can't be easily used when it comes

to how technological choices or how technology is affecting the choices of firms in the economy especially with housing and employment. >> what can the ftc do to make sure they are protected? feel to have the resources necessary? >> we do have the fair credit reporting act we have not brought a case in a long time i would like us to energetically enforce those two laws but truthfully on the second part of your question answer would be no i don't think we have the authority to confront these issues you are raising with respect to privacy and data security.

>> and net tragedy is the issue. so do you believe the recent supreme court decision affected the ability with anti- competitive behavior with net neutrality by broadband providers? >> i don't think so. so basically the basic crux is limited to situations to design a platform with a transaction providing a service to both sides at the same time. that would apply to very few in the situation.

so with those consumers on the other against the anti- competitive conduct. >> it could be depend but i think not in general. >> former ftc commissioner has suggested created a bureau of technology. so do they have sufficient resources in the digital age with those resources that issue families to put forth the 2011 order? >> we cannot talk about the existing investigation but we can say we have numerous ways to have the help that we need

with the office of technology research and investigation. we frequently contract with outside parties and we hold workshops and seminars to bring people into educate us about new developments in the technological area. . . . .

as opposed to one that is just in one of the gurus. >> bureaus. >> the time is expired into the chair now recognizes the gentleman from indiana for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i am concerned to hear reports that the doj may not challenge the merger. in the healthcare industry that already lacks the price transparency in many areas of competition, this vertical merger could increase anti-competitive practices. i'm not passing any judgment on the merge merger at all up or d, i'm just voicing a few concerns. the merger could lead to customers receiving pressure to fill prescriptions at cbs and to visit the walk-in clinics

instead of other pharmacies or clinics limiting choice for the consumer. in addition, one of the largest asset managers in the country as you likely know they negotiate prices for drug manufacturers and the top three manage the drug benefits for approximately 95% of american people. the merger might incentivize better deals while potentially increasing cost for other companies. while i understand the doj is investigating the merger i want to get your perspective particularly on this and i'm getting to my point i want your perspective since they have jurisdiction on the antitrust law. to the panel, what are your thoughts on this kind of a vertical merger and the healthcarin thehealthcare indusc to this, but in general particularly in health care i'm very concerned about this because as you know we are

struggling to get health care costs down and provide coverage for all of our citizens. i will address that to the panel. what are your thoughts on the merger and healthcare space? >> healthcare industry has been and will continue to be an assist for all the reasons that you just described. in terms of, we are very focused on this part of the economy looking out for the consumer. in terms of the vertical mergers, they turn out to be very fact specific. even when the companies involved are large they can be harmful to the consumer. the authority is which is which and to act accordingly. >> i agree healthcare is

important to consumers and is an important part of the economy and focused at the ftc. regarding the vertical mergers, i agree they are intensely fact specific that i would mention outside of the healthcare space we recently had a vertical merger where we had a remedy we required a behavioral remedy on the matter so there can be problems and where there are it should be stopped or proposed to allow for the efficiencies to occur. >> thank you for the question. i agree with my colleagues hope their hats for a long time remained a focus for this agency. i'm very proud of the work our staff has done fighting all sorts of anti-competitive

conduct ensuring that the mergers work for consumers. does this teach us they can be very good for consumers but the specifics depend on the facts and is really important that we pay attention to trends in that sector of the economy and look aand lookat how companies are cg their behavior and combining and stay on top of them when we fear that there may be. >> it raises transparency and conflict of interest issues. >> my colleague basically said everything i was going to say and in the plaintiff told her in particular, consumers are frustrated and competition is frustrated by the lack of transparency and that is true with respect to pharmaceutical benefit. >> quickly, commissioner. we are focused on ways in which

we collect information about consumers. aas i've raised in several hearings i have specific concerns with cell phones and other devices listening and collecting information and then being used to deliver targeted ads and this happens all the time. is this something you are concerned with, and i know you are, and will it be an issue for the ftc makes a priority? >> i think it is one of those economic trends i mentioned a moment ago that is very much at the front of what we are looking at. >> the gentleman's time is expired and now recognizes the gentleman from texas for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman for calling this hearing and also for the public member. i would like to talk about the robo call problem and as you know they are on the do not call registry and they are the top tp

complaints that you see by the ftc and members of congress and constituents particularly older americans that lose more than all the other younger age groups according to the ftc consumer network data book. americans ages 50 and older are repeating a loss of over 2.5 times the median loss for americans in the 30s for $380. all of the complaints received can you provide a rough estimate on how many come from u.s. companies or individuals. >> thank you for the question. the data that we have access to doesn't allow us to determine that. if i had to guess i would say that is largely coming from overseas. >> she said she got a call and somebody was speaking chinese to

her. >> one of the problems is the do not call rule has been superseded by technological developments. you can have the telecommunications costs that he come down so dramatically that the last thing millions of calls are so cheap. >> do you know how many received this from the ftc? >> if you don't know and could get that to us because a lot of us see this in the town hall meetings and they want to know about social security and the care. to give jurisdiction over the common carriers because some of them are we think facilitating

robo calls and we could challenge that. >> i've understood that and i don't have any opposition to it, but i know that when we get the ftc, the committee has jurisdiction over both of them so you are talking to the right committee. what more can the ftc do under the current law to protect older americans from fraud >> we have community outreach, and on the website we have consumer materials for the elderly and we do sweeps and recently conducted a sweep that dealt with the elderly. there is a task force now that they are spearheaded that we are involved in as one of the communities it is geared to

help. >> ten-day partner on a joint effort particularly with seniors and older americans? >> we would certainly be happy to talk about that. >> i will bring that up at the telecom subcommittee. that is a big issue that i know we all hear about and i will yield back the balance of my time. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania for five minutes. >> they sent 13 warning letters to the retailers, manufacturers and distributors of the gaping products to start marketing -- stop marketing to children. as we have seen that it is increasingly becoming pervasive in the schools. it is well-established tha nicoe can be whthat theteam can rewirt

brain leading to years of addiction. if anybody else would like to weigh in do they agree on the statement that there is no acceptable number of children using tobacco products, and i guess that is an easy answer ist followed by this question. would it be a powerful deterrent to give the ftc the authority to find a party marketing these products to children for the first violation? >> i would think any financial penalty. >> this comes on the heels of the commissioner has a comment about the difference between having the ability to find versus working on.

>> if there were a rule in place or we had the authority, we would be able not only to just tell someone stop, we would be able to seek penalties and other remedies. >> what would it look like and how can congress tailor that so that they don't have all the freedom that we fear you could have? >> some of the things made on this i think would inform how you might prescribe it because there is changing science and delivery mechanisms. i am not an expert in the tobacco market, but i think he would be able to put the guard rails around it to make it as narrow as the want. i think sure whatever you do give us we vigorously enforce.

that example is from a marketing perspective how do you fashion how you would go about determining if there isn't a violation and how broadly it would be vested upon you to go into the marketing space and say we are going to stop you here &-and-sign you hear versus enter into the distance the creek, and if it's so broad as to say any marketing or is it going to be certain types of marketing or product is? >> i gave you the easy example. >> we do enforce a children's online privacy protection act and its implementing regulation. as a part of that, we hope to communicate the market place but is considered dealing with online transactions with children. we specify that. so, one of the advantages of putting some meat on the bone implementing the rules is

because of the participants a clear sense as to what is inside and outside the bounds rather thaof the bounds ratherthan wait action. >> i have another question. a smart acsmart act was approvee full committee. we are focused on both the benefits and challenges. can you talk about the actions and initiatives that they will take to promote consumer protection with respect to the device is? >> we are active in that space as tension we had a coupl have f workers there already. to look at what we should be doing going forward, we are very active in this area. >> do you have anything to add

in terms of what you are doing in this space? >> it is a particularly interesting area and the enforcement action again the first connected case and other ones that were brought about in the connected cameras and the routers as well as the policy because the internet of things can have enormous benefits for consumers and competition so we want to draw the lines in the right places to make sure they are connected but that the innovation may still continue in the market. >> do you have the type of authority vested in you to do that, or have you found that lacking intelligence? >> the cases that we have been able to bring do show that we have sufficient authority and have the attention of the industry making sure they don't have balls and they are looking

at things but it is challenging because they are often disposable products and they don't get updated a lot so there may be other industry involvement. >> i appreciate the feedback. >> the chair recognizes the gentle and from florida for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is actually for chairman simons. the ftc points out the mission through vigorous enforcement education, advocacy and policy work by anticipating the changes in the marketplace. help side of laoutside of law ee there paths are examples of policy work reports and workshops related to online privacy that can you share with us today? >> i am drawing a blank right now but maybe one of my colleagues can help me. >> in the past year and a half,

we've done six workshops looking at privacy and data security. we had a student privacy network to explore the boundaries and the type of injuries consumers they suffer. so i think that we have done quite a bit in this space. just in the recent time building on the work that we've done in this area. >> commissioner phillips, does anybody else want to add something? >> the chair man also announced a very ambitious set of hearin hearings. i also would encourage you the 2012 privacy report as well as a later report on data brokers, those two i think provide a

consensus roadmap on a lot of the initiatives that could be pursued in a bipartisan basis. do you have anything to add? >> do you believe the consumers fully comprehend exactly how much personal health and financial data has been collected on them? what can they do to better educate consumers on the data collection? it's up to the individual, but they need to get all the facts. if you could answer, i would appreciate it. >> i can't sit here and tell you every individual fully comprehend the way which data are being collected and how they are being used or how they are being shared. you are right to note consumers

have access to that information and also have certain expectations. for instance, my ability to use a map that guides me through traffic, i know that it must have information about that traffic from drivers like me that are supplying it. that balance is very important fostering the innovation as we want to do and also helping to keep the consumer understanding in mind. i think that is going to be one of the biggest challenges that we face overall. i know what is going to be a topic that we will be talking about in the years to come if we look forward to working with you on that. >> if someone else wants to add something. something. would you recommend that a consumer assume all of their data, that particular data would

be collected when they make an informed decision as to whether they want to log in or out sometimes they don't have the opportunity. >> let me start with the second one. i hope in my own life and others they make informed decisions. that isn't always how we do things. and i will admit to you that i have repeatedly in the last few weeks clicked on any number and now i've forgotten the first part of the question i apologize. >> can you assume that this data is collected? >> as we engage with the additional economy we drive tremendous benefits from that in almost every minute of every day of our lives and in many

respects we are sharing information so that is a reasonable assumption. >> it's pretty sad that we have to assume helplessness. so i understand we may want to warn consumers anything else can be up for grabs, but that could lower the consumers confidence in engaging in online spaces where they think everything is going to be taken from them. so, we have to make sure that we are also not scaring people from engaging in productive transactions for their lives because they fear someone is always spying on them and this is how we have to put in place the right framework to protect privacy. >> from the enforcement perspective it is our obligation to make sure when companies represented to consumers that they are collecting data in a certain way or not collecting data in a certain way that they are living up to the representation and that is an area under the current law that we can enforce.

>> said, going back to the 2012 privacy report, it talks about the importance of being context specific. so if i'm sharing my location with a traffic app, i understand if those where i am to route me around, but the consumer may not expect that it will be used in other ways. supporting an example, we brought in a case called golden sure that it's about a flashlight app and it worked fine come up to consumers didn't know that it was also collecting real-time collection data sharing it with marketers. for thaso that is an important s the context of the information being used, or is it being shared in the sensitive data in a way that they don't anticipa anticipate. and i think that is where the enforcement and guidance into policy concerns need to focus. >> i have a couple more questions i've also put the record. the time is expired and the

gentleman from new mexico for five minutes. >> ranking member alone and schakowsky for holding this important oversight when it comes to protecting consumers i'm afraid both congress and the ftc have much more work to do. i want to direct my question to you which i believe you should be able to address without getting into the active investigations. september, 2017, equifax announced a data breach that they knew about but failed to adequately address. information including social security numbers, addresses and in some cases, drivers numbers or partial numbers of almost 150 million consumers are exposed to a list of actors. commissioner, is that correct? >> that's my understanding.

that is consistent with -- >> equifax announced the massive consumer reach. >> this is public information. >> isn't perfect but more than 200,000 consumers were compromised as well as other information and documents of more than 180 consumers? >> i'm not sure if that was public. >> is that correct facebook revealed 87 million users have their data exposed to cambridge analytic? >> is it correct november of last year we learned that they sold information of 57 million drivers? >> that is reported as well. >> i would like to submit the article states in january of 2017 at least 15 retailers were hacked and have information stolen from them that include macy's, adidas, sears, delta,

best buy, under armour, panera bread, sonic, whole foods, game stop and arby's. have you ever shopped at one of these establishments? >> yes. >> i think most americans have. commissioner simmons, is there any reason to expect that there would be fewer data breaches in the future? >> that is our goal that we are looking for. >> one of the things we discussed earlier is the need for a civil penalty authority to act as an increased deterrent. >> so building on that, can you detail what role they are developing to better protect consumers privacy and data? >> we don't have any rulemaking going on. we are engaged to the extent the current authority allows us to do that and we are as aggressive as we can. >> do they have rulemaking

authority? >> we do, but it's very cumbersome. >> but not in this space. >> it's general. >> could they use a support for the authority to have more clear rulemaking authority to protect the consumers privacy? >> through the enforcement we are able to make clear what the companies are supposed to do, so we are our relatively effective in that regard. the rule i don't think we needed to be clear what th with the cos the ticket. i think that the authority of the civil penalty authority without as a substantial additional deterrent. >> of some of the numbers i rattled off, 150 million exposed with equifax and 200,000 consumers were compromised and with facebook and cambridge

analytic and uber drivers, if people are getting their information stolen. are you aware of any recent legislation passed by congress and signed into law that would strengthen privacy protections for consumers? >> this would be a relatively recent one. it's not recent but there's the fair credit reporting act as well. >> the reason i ask that question is they held a hearing in october of 2017. we had mark before the committee in april of 2018 and it is now july. these took place before the holiday and there were assured in this they would act to provide more certainty to the comment that commissioner shared to instill confidence.

nothing happened. >> i believe this congress and this committee needs to act before the august recess and before the end of this year to be able to get more comprehensive privacy legislation adopted in our constituents and the american people deserve better than that. i see that my time has expired. >> thank you very much. the gentleman's time is expired anhas expiredand we recognize tn from georgia for five minutes. >> i appreciate you letting me sit in on this. i think all of you for being here. you have a very important job and certainly it's important to consumers. full disclosure i'm the only pharmacist in congress for over 30 years i practiced retail pharmacy and i'm very familiar with what is going on. i wanted to ask him to talk specifically about the pharmacy benefit managers where three

companies control 78% of the market. first, you and i met after he became the director. we met and talked about anti-competitive nature. what you consider three companies owning 78% of the market to be a problem? >> certainly it is a market that you might find and we might look for the competitive conduct. as i mentioned before in terms of antitrust enforcement, the places to look are the places there are small numbers or firm. >> one of the things that confuses me is when we talk about vertical and horizontal integration often times you tell me vertical integration is fine we just have to worry about horizontal integration. i appreciate you correcting me because that is probably a misnomer i want to dispose of. the integration as we see it right now, all of you know what's going on.

we've got the top three that i mentioned that control 78% of the market, they are now buying aetna so all of a sudden it includes the insurance company and now you've got buying out express scripts. do you know according to volume it is the third-largest pharmacy chain in america right now? ..

>> under the auspices of a lack of transparency that is known out there and they hide behind that and the process is outrageous. according to data from cms and in 2014 with prescription prescription drugs have jumped by 1100%. 1550% increase but in the last ten years to increase the profit margin by nearly 600%. i'm not opposed to anybody making money but what is that mission to control prescription drug prices. how is that working out?

what the president of hhs right now to lower prescription drug prices. they are hiding and this is what we look to do am i wrong? is that not the responsibility should i talked to another agency? >> it is partially our responsibility. we look at any competitive conduct that they are engaged then we should be challenging i it. >> a quick story a pharmacist filled a prescription for his wife who is covered. that night he got a call at his home from cvs saying if you get it filled at our pharmacy you can have a lower co-pay. isn't there supposed to be a

firewall? that is the kind of behavior that is going on and we look to you to help us with this. not because of the pharmacy but because of the consumer the consumer is suffering because as you do away with independent retail season choice of this competition that doesn't benefit the consumer at all. it is very frustrates -- frustrating that they create pharmacy network and who will be let into the network a direct patients to the pharmacy they own the pharmacy who today direct to? who is supposed to be watching this? i thought it was the ftc can i get a commitment you will look into this? >> we are looking into it. >> we had a meeting and they took what you said to heart.

>> we had a meeting and they took what you said to heart. >> i look forward to continuing that conversation with you. >> thank you for that opportunity to participate with this hearing and i agree 1000% with my colleagues' mergers are out of control but the consumer in a bad position but thank you for being here and your work this is incredibly important in terms of protecting consumers and the opportunities to lean in to do that that is expansive right now. commissioner simons? i was wondering why everybody said simmons.

i wanted to talk about biologic drugs and the ftc doesn't currently have the authority to monitor the agreements made with the manufacturers of biologics and the similar's is an important if the ftc has that authority? >> my understanding is look at that authority of the agreement between the brand name drug fractures to monitor this anti- competitive behavior that you can have a significant impact out there? if you take those actions. >> that statute requires that there is any agreement that

delays the marketing of the product to report that to the ftc and those disclosures are significant a way in which the commission finds out from these agreements and it gives them the sense to tell us where to look these are anti- competitive not it is a big brief description and we can look at them to figure out which looks like a problem and we go after it. >> there is a study out there that shows while brand-name drugs are 10% that are dispensed including biologics there is a huge amount of money on the line obviously for patients directly in payers like medicaid and medicare to be saved by

monitoring the agreements. it is critical to get the same authority with the biologics and bio similars because in the same way those delays are decreasing market competition that hurts patients at the counter and again i want to commend you you are doing with respect to the generics on the brand-name drugs but the medicare modernization act that gave ftc this authority to extend to biologics and bio similar drugs i will be introducing a bio similar competition act to grant you that authorities you can monitor these deals and punish the bad actors and deter many of these backroom deals from being made in the first place we look forward to the

comments you will have with respect to the proposed legislation would you want to give you that authority. >> thank you very much to switch gears quickly you had two or three members ask about your authority as it related to facebook with the earlier consent decree and i want to pick up on that a little bit. i was struck in a recent earnings call the various wall street analyst bring up mark sucker berg of the invocations of europe's privacy laws and how that might impact the company and its earnings not one single analyst asked about the ftc announced investigation into facebook privacy concerns and potential violations of the 2011 consent decree so the market doesn't to be taking that consent decree or the ability to enforce that and punish

facebook seriously from the market standpoint. actually the commissioner i would like her perspective to share quickly, just about this issue of the commissions credibility? at on the earnings call suggest takes it seriously so how can the ftc be taken more seriously with those tools? >> without speaking about the specific matter at hand, the ftc very energetically goes after companies that break the law when it comes to smalltime scammers we really do lay down the hammer we seek executives or close down a business. i would like us to apply the law evenly with the smalltime scammer or a big time publicly traded corporation and it is a

duty to apply that equally in the market need to see we are willing to do that or the credibility of our orders and enforcement are not as high as it needs to be. >> i appreciate that and i agree we do need to make sure the big guys perceive this as the small guys the public's confidence in the commission is dependent on that and i yield back. >> your time is expired know the gentleman from california for five minutes. >> i think commissioners for your services in recent years we have witnessed more incidents from many companies like facebook facebook linkedin and and some the ftc does have resources to help consumers who have been victims of data breach so commissioner what could more the ftc be doing for consumers

? >> thank you for the question i think my colleagues and i have also been looking at the area of data breach and data security we have spoken i think all of us actually how we could benefit from data security legislation or data breach notification legislation to give us more specific authority to make authority with respect to data security and data privacy. >> that is your specific recommendation the ftc be given rulemaking authority? >> i think we outlined different issues and different kinds of authorities that would be useful civil penalty authority is another, i think we do and we will go after violations of the law where we find them now that you deter these problems on a large-scale we would be better

able to do that with more authority. >> commissioner do have anything to add? >> i think you mentioned target and other large retailers i want to underscore particularly with respect to stolen credit card information at the large retailers this impacts wide swath of the banking industry as well community banks and others who have to take those losses. we require financial institutions in healthcare institutions to protect data and then to level the playing field to make sure other big sectors are doing the same thing. >> facial recognition features are incorporated brad smith from microsoft said that what is it doing with privacy

concerns is this a good example it was not considered sensitive information now sensitive information so one of the things is if people are being misled and how they are using them the correct way. >> the potential for misuse with facial recognition that we are not always that situated to combat identify

want to live in a society where everyone knows my movements at all time where my face can be scanned and used other things about me. it is something i am worried about i saw a microsoft announcement about this we will do what we can but i want to be clear we cannot solve everything with respect to facial recognition. >> congress needs to get involved? >> i think it involves a lot of issues beyond our narrow lens and that is something to enforce the law for misuse of data with commercial transactions but i think is on you to look at the big picture. >> following up on that came

from --dash tee2 cambridge analytic at issue it was revealed it wasn't until this spring the commission announced it was investigating. you cannot comment specifically but what about how it monitors the decrees? >> without saying anything about the particular matter with the self-critical examination when this came to light we started a task force to deal with potential changes. >> how do you enforce those? >> how we write them and enforce them you have to get the company committed to doing what it needs to do and also

in terms to monitor properly. >> writing the orders is important and enforcing is important. >> and if i can quickly add we all taken force meant of order seriously. i note when chairman simon his previous didn't he is achieved and obtained a significant penalty we will continue with that to correct violations of our orders. >> we will ask one quick question mutually agreed-upon. i will touch on an issue with advertisements that are good mom -- target the senior population we have seen or heard the lawsuit advertisements that claim

certain medication may have complications during the advertisement also that they may at times be misleading or fraudulent with potential physical harm is there an issue that the ftc is focused on and if you are what are you doing to prevent misleading and false as. >> it is potentially deception because of the area's involvement something we would do in conjunction with the fda. >> you are actively working on them. >> you brought it to our attention so this is of a concern. yes. >> thank you i will recognize the gentlelady from illinois. >> from my opening statement the european commission announced a $5.1 billion

antitrust fine on google. so among the other things for smart phone makers to preinstall google search together with the place store in chrome browser and does not sell on vital android systems by imposing the bundle package on the smart phone makers. it gave itself an advantage over the competitor so i know you announced a series of hearings to examine competitive competition policy but as of right now are there any limitations under u.s. law to prevent the ftc to look into google's conduct with this bundling? do you have enough authority to consider their conduct as anti- competitive?

>> thank you for the question. we do have enough authority to determine if it is anti-competitive or not and let me just say that we will read what the eu put out very closely we are very interested what they are doing i had a conversation yesterday and we are very interested. >> who was that person? >> the commissioner my counterpart of the european competition director. but in terms of what they look at versus what we look at their regulatory regime is a little different than ours so once they find a company's dominant as i understand it imposes upon the company like a fairness obligation irrespective of the effect on the consumer our regime requires there is a harm to consumer welfare so the consumer has to be injured so

the two test is a little different but we will look closely at what the eu is doing. >> thank you i yield back. >> the gentlelady yields back there are no further members here so we thank you for being with us today and appearing before the subcommittee before we do conclude the following documents submitted for the record the aca international in the information center trade association and a letter from the internet dissociation and without objection so ordered. i remind members they have ten business days to submit additional questions for the record and i ask witnesses respond within ten business days upon receipt without objection we are adjourned without objection we are

adjourned spee5

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congressman bob goodlatte chairs the committee.