FTC Chairwoman to the Valley: I Come In Peace — And to Keep Your Company Secure

Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez wants Silicon Valley to see her agency as something more than a wrist slapper. She went to San Francisco to host the agency’s first “Start with Security” conference, an initiative to institute broad guidelines for consumer privacy protection — and convince tech companies to turn to the FTC for guidance.

Security specialists from Google, Dropbox, Twitter and several other companies shared the stage. They discussed how tech companies, big public ones and particularly smaller ones, can build tight security protocols. Chairwoman Ramirez also detailed where companies have crossed the line: The case against Snapchat, settled in May 2014, around the startup’s disappearing messages; and a case against Fandango, the movie-booking site, and Credit Karma, a personal finance platform, for insecure mobile apps. The FTC detailed these two cases, along with a lengthy list of best practices, in a security guideline it released for businesses. Chairwoman Ramirez is hosting the second “Start with Security” event in Austin on November 5.