Glossary / Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The US consumer-protection regulator. Its security-failure settlements — as with Ring — can mean consumer refunds, mandated audits, forced data deletion, and reputational damage.

Introduced in Chapter 18 — Connected and Exposed of Tangibles.

Related terms

• Cyber Resilience Act — The EU regulation setting baseline security requirements for connected products as a condition of market access.
• FDA — The US Food and Drug Administration.
• GDPR — The EU's General Data Protection Regulation, governing personal data — with stricter rules (Article 9) for the health and biometric data connected devices increasingly collect.
• Externalities — Costs (or benefits) of a product borne by third parties or the environment rather than its maker or buyer — for example, the waste a device leaves behind.