https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/11/ftc-sets-the-wheels-in-motion-for-a-major-data-privacy-ruling/

The Federal Trade Commission is warming up for a major ruling on data privacy and digital surveillance, a domain it has long enforced case by case but which has reached a stage of crisis it believes must be addressed more comprehensively. The announcement today is only the very earliest step in what could be a multi-year process, but better now than never, which until recently seems to have been the preferred timeline.

Today’s announcement is an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,” essentially the agency saying “we’re thinking about this seriously and are soliciting public input on the idea.” No actual rules are proposed; instead, there is an extensive list of questions that the agency hopes to answer in the process of writing the rules, and everyone from ordinary consumers to advocacy organizations like the EFF and ACLU are encouraged to weigh in.