FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson warned 13 major technology companies that censoring U.S. citizens or weakening data security protections at the behest of foreign governments could violate U.S. law. Formal letters were sent to firms including Akamai, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Cloudflare, Discord, GoDaddy, Meta, Microsoft, Signal, Snap, Slack, and X, reminding them to protect American consumers' privacy and data security despite overseas regulatory pressure. Ferguson stated that foreign-imposed censorship and weakened end-to-end encryption could erode Americans' freedoms and expose them to surveillance, identity theft, and fraud. Companies were invited to meet by August 28 to explain plans to honor privacy commitments while managing competing global regulatory demands. The warning raises vendor reliability and data-protection uncertainty for enterprise buyers, and Ferguson cited three foreign regulations that could pressure companies to compromise U.S. users.
"I am concerned that these actions by foreign powers to impose censorship and weaken end-to-end encryption will erode Americans' freedoms and subject them to myriad harms, such as surveillance by foreign governments and an increased risk of identity theft and fraud," Ferguson wrote in the letters, the statement added.
Ferguson sent formal letters to 13 tech giants - including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft - reminding them of their legal obligations to protect American consumers' privacy and data security despite mounting pressure from overseas regulators, the FTC said in a statement.
For enterprise technology buyers, the FTC's warning creates new questions about vendor reliability and data protection commitments. Organizations that rely on cloud services, collaboration platforms, and security tools from the targeted companies now face uncertainty about whether their providers will maintain consistent global security standards.
Ferguson invited the firms to schedule meetings with his office by August 28 to discuss how they will honor their privacy commitments to US consumers while facing competing global regulatory demands.
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