Letter: NCL asks FTC for workshop dedicated to data breaches – National Consumers League

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February 5, 2015

The Honorable Edith Ramirez
Chairwoman
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580

Dear Chairwoman Ramirez:

On behalf of the National Consumers League, America’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, I would like to commend you for the leadership that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shown in protecting the security of consumers’ data. 

As you are aware, however, data breaches continue to affect tens of millions of consumers every year. Negative impacts of these breaches can range from the simple inconvenience of replacing compromised credit cards, to an increased risk of identity theft, to the disclosure of sensitive corporate intellectual property. More remains to be done to safeguard the security of Americans’ personal information. As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union speech “[n]o foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids.” Congress has held numerous hearings, including one today in the Senate Energy & Commerce Committee, that seek solutions to this data security crisis.

Through more than fifty enforcement actions, the FTC has held the caretakers of consumers’ sensitive personal information to account when they fail to adequately protect that data. Since you assumed the chairwomanship in 2013, the FTC has organized several workshops aimed at examining privacy and security implications of emerging technologies such as the “Internet of Things,”[1] mobile devices,[2] and “Big Data.”[3] These important events have done much to build a record of public input that has helped inform the FTC’s work and the actions of businesses and other organizations throughout the country.

Given the success of past FTC workshops and the scope of the data breach problem, we strongly urge the Commission to consider organizing a workshop focused solely on the issue of data beaches. Specifically, we would like this workshop to convene cybersecurity experts, leaders from the consumer advocacy and law enforcement communities and representatives from the retail, banking, credit rating and technology sectors. The goal of such a workshop should be to create a record that the Commission can use to understand how well existing voluntary guidelines, self-regulatory regimes and cybersecurity technologies are working to protect consumer data. The event would also assist the Commission to develop guidance for businesses and other entities on how comply with Section 5 of the FTC Act by better protecting their customers’ data.

I look forward to continuing to work with the FTC as it moves forward on its important data security agenda. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at your convenience. 

Kind regards,

Sally Greenberg
Executive Director
National Consumers League 

cc: The Honorable Julie Brill
The Honorable Terrell McSweeny
The Honorable Maureen K. Ohlhausen
The Honorable John Thune
The Honorable Joshua D. Wright

[1] Federal Trade Commission. “FTC Seeks Input on Privacy and Security Implications of the Internet of Things,” Press Release. April 17, 2013. Online: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/04/ftc-seeks-input-privacy-and-security-implications-internet-things

[2] Federal Trade Commission. “FTC to Host Public Forum on Threats to Mobile Devices on June 4,” Press Release. February 22, 2013. Online: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/02/ftc-host-public-forum-threats-mobile-devices-june-4

[3] Federal Trade Commission. “FTC to Examine Effects of Big Data on Low Income and Underserved Consumers at September Workshop,” Press Release. April 11, 2014. Online: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/04/ftc-examine-effects-big-data-low-income-underserved-consumers

Group condemns defeat of child labor tobacco bill in VA – National Consumers League

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February 4, 2015

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL) is deeply disappointed in the defeat of a Virginia State Legislature bill that would have been the first of its kind to protect children from working in dangerous tobacco fields. “This takes us back a century ago when children in America were working in mines, factories, and mills. The reactionary forces fought protections for kids back then, just as they are doing today,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League (NCL) and co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), which NCL co-founded 25 years ago. “It’s just as intolerable to expose kids to these toxics today as it was in 1915.” 

The bill (HB 1906), introduced last month by Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington), was defeated yesterday in the Republican-controlled Committee on Commerce and Labor. HB 1906 would have made it illegal for children, other than the members of a farmer’s own family, from harvesting tobacco. Recent reports of children being sickened by acute nicotine poisoning in tobacco fields battling nausea, headaches, vomiting, and dizziness have sparked a national movement to ban this practice.

“It is our obligation to protect our most vulnerable workers. It is very disappointing to see Virginia lawmakers cave to big tobacco interests and defeat this common-sense child labor protection,” said Reid Maki, Director, Child Labor Issues at NCL and Coordinator, Child Labor Coalition. “We will continue to ask lawmakers at both the federal and state levels to ban child labor in U.S. tobacco fields.”

Lopez’s bill would have prohibited farmers from hiring anyone under 18 to work in direct contact with tobacco leaves. HB 1906 would have been the first legislation of its kind in a state that harvests tobacco. In Virginia, it would preempt some of the outdated Fair Labor Standards Act provisions that allow children as young as 12 to work unlimited hours on farms performing the dangerous work.

“Young children should not be working in direct contact with tobacco. They are especially vulnerable to nicotine poisoning due to their size and stage of development. Indeed, a recent report from the surgeon general suggests that nicotine exposure during adolescence may have lasting negative consequences,” said Del. Lopez in a press release.

For more on this issue, click here.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

 

President’s budget brings good news to food safety advocates – National Consumers League

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Monday, the president released his budget and with it, a proposal to create one single federal agency focused on food safety. The proposal came days after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced bills to create an independent federal food safety agency. Both the budget and this legislation seek to reallocate food safety inspections, labeling, and enforcement into a single agency cutting government costs and overlap.  

As it presently stands, most food safety responsibilities are split between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The current setup is redundant and fragmented. FSIS is responsible for meat, poultry and eggs while FDA regulates everything else. The system becomes confusing for some foods like eggs where FDA is responsible for the health of the hens but FSIS must ensure that the eggs are safe for consumption.

Food safety advocates have long called for the consolidation of these agencies into one. Streamlining the food safety operations would reduce unnecessary overlap between the agencies. The proposed new food safety agency would also be responsible for coordinating with state and local health departments after a food borne illness outbreak, a job the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently is responsible for. Moving this responsibility to the new agency could allow for faster reaction times and better trace back to contaminated food sources.

The food safety policies presented by the President and Congress in the past week are cause for celebration among both food safety advocates and consumers. While these policies have only just been proposed, they are a promising sign of positive changes for our food safety. Members of Congress should make implementing a new agency similar to the one President Obama laid out a priority.

Group praises NY investigation revealing ‘outrageous’ mislabeling of supplements at major national retailers – National Consumers League

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February 3, 2015

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL) applauds Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for his aggressive investigation of adulterated and fraudulent dietary supplements sold on the private labels of four major national retailers—GNC Target, Walmart, and Walgreens. The investigation revealed that supplements were mislabeled, some of which contained none of the ingredients they were marketed to contain. The investigation included 390 tests involving 78 samples, and found that just 21 percent of tested supplements identified DNA from plant species listed on the label.

“Hats off to the New York Attorney General for exposing this rampant consumer fraud. Americans are wasting millions of dollars on supplements that claim to contain ‘healthful’ ingredients when they do nothing of the kind,“ said Sally Greenberg, NCL’s executive director. Consumers must be able to trust the list of ingredients on the bottle; sadly, this testing reveals that information is far from reliable. Among other concerns, the millions of consumers with allergies may be in grave danger if ingredients are not listed on the label.”

NCL, the nation’s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, advocated for the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906, the first significant consumer protection law, and continues to fight for a safe marketplace free of adulterated food.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires drugs to meet stringent regulations for safety and efficacy before they hit the market, dietary supplements are free of any such requirements.  Congress enacted legislation preventing the FDA from protecting consumers from harmful supplements and rejected any pre-approval process. As a result, the FDA must demonstrate that a product is unsafe before removing it. NCL supports legislation that would bring stronger oversight to the dietary supplements industry. 

The New York AG investigation found that 35 percent of supplements tested contained ingredients not on the label, including rice, beans, citrus, asparagus, wheat, houseplants, and others. The supplement industry contributes $61 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the Natural Products Foundation. Supplements are consumed by an estimated 150 million Americans, according to a 2013 study from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

“Dietary supplements have gained such mainstream popularity that they are a part of everyday life for millions of consumers,” said Rebecca Burkholder, NCL’s vice president of health policy. “Manufacturers and retailers must be held accountable for the aggressive, and at times, misleading promotion of these products. We welcome investigations such as Attorney General Schneiderman’s, and we call on the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute companies that are found to be selling bogus products to consumers in the name of health.”

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Consumer group praises Obama proposal to streamline fed’s role in food safety – National Consumers League

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February 3, 2015

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC – America’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy group is praising President Obama’s new proposal for the creation of a new federal agency solely focused on food safety in his Fiscal Year 2016 Budget. The announcement comes on the heels of similar legislation proposed by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) last week called The Safe Food Act of 2015.  Both seek to consolidate parts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration, ultimately streamlining inspections and eliminating unnecessary overlap. 

“Our current food systems are redundant and fragmented,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League.  “Consolidating USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service and FDA’s food safety oversight will ensure cohesive practices and superior response times in the event of an outbreak, ultimately keeping consumers and our food supply safer.  We urge Congress to support the creation of a new food safety agency.”

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.