Federal Trade Commissioner Lina Khan said Tuesday she will leave the agency at the end of the month.
“It’s been an extraordinary honor to serve the American public as @FTC Chair,” she stated in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “As I wrap up my record-keeping obligations and other administrative requirements, I will depart the Commission by January 31.”
Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, a Republican, took over as chair of the five-member agency on Monday.
Khan was appointed to the FTC in 2021, and named chair by Former President Joe Biden just hours after being confirmed by the Senate.
While helming the agency, she frequently expressed concerns about online data collection for ad purposes -- which she referred to as “commercial surveillance.”
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Under Khan's leadership, the FTC took initial steps toward passing rules that could restrict online data collection by issuing a controversial “advance notice of proposed rulemaking,” which sought input from the public about whether to regulate companies' ability to collect and monetize consumer data. That advance notice did not result in any specific proposals.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade -- a move that paved the way for states to criminalize abortion -- Khan spearheaded crackdowns on data brokers that share people's locations, as well as on health apps that allegedly share patients' data with tech platforms.
In the last three years, the agency settled location-privacy cases against data brokers including Mobilewalla, Gravy Analytics, Outlogic (formerly X-Mode) and InMarket Media.
The agency also sued data broker Kochava for allegedly selling smartphone users' precise geolocation data.
The agency alleged in an August 2022 complaint that Kochava's data can be used to identify not only "consumers who have visited an abortion clinic and, as a result, may have had or contemplated having an abortion," but also "medical professionals who perform, or assist in the performance, of abortion services.”
That matter is still pending in federal court in Idaho, and has the support of at least one Republican on the commission -- Melissa Holyoak.
“When private parties like the defendants disclose precise geolocation information revealing political, medical, or religious activities, without consumers’ consent to willing purchasers, their conduct breaches that trust and jeopardizes Americans’ freedom,” Holyoak stated last July, when the FTC brought an amended petition against Kochava.
The FTC also recently settled privacy cases against prescription discounter GoodRx therapy app BetterHelp for allegedly disclosing people's data for ad targeting after promising to keep the information confidential.
Before joining the FTC, Khan was among the counsel to the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, which criticized large tech companies in a 2020 report. She also served as legal director at Open Markets Institute, which advocates for aggressive enforcement of anti-monopoly laws.