FTC to Host Workshop on Consumer Injuries and Benefits in the Data-Driven Economy

According to the FTC’s announcement, the workshop will focus on:

• "Informational injuries" from how companies collect, use, or share people’s data (including privacy and data‑security harms).
• How to quantify both harms and potential benefits from consumer data collection and use.
• The impacts of data breaches on consumers and ways to reduce those injuries.
• The costs and benefits of behavioral and contextual advertising that rely on tracking people.
• How to measure consumers’ privacy preferences, beliefs, and decisions. These build on earlier FTC work on “informational injuries,” such as harms from medical identity theft, doxing, and disclosure of sensitive data.

The FTC states that the February 26, 2026 workshop is free and open to the public, and that registration is not required to attend.

Who it is for (based on FTC descriptions of this and similar events):

• Economists, academics, privacy and consumer‑protection researchers.
• Industry professionals working with consumer data (e.g., advertising, tech, data brokers).
• Consumer advocates, lawyers, policy analysts, and other experts interested in data‑driven markets.
• Any member of the public who wants to follow the discussion.

How to attend:

• In person: Go to the FTC’s Constitution Center, 400 7th St SW, Washington, DC 20024, on Feb. 26, 2026, during the posted workshop hours.
• Online: The FTC will provide a live webcast; details and access links will be posted on the event page closer to the date.

The FTC’s January 8, 2026 press release does not promise a specific report, findings, or recommendations after the February 26 workshop, nor does it give a timeline.

However, for the similar 2017 “Informational Injury” workshop, FTC staff later released a written “Staff Perspective” summarizing key takeaways in October 2018, indicating that FTC often—but not always—publishes post‑workshop analyses at a later date.

So, as of this announcement, whether and when a follow‑up document will be published for the 2026 workshop is not yet specified.

Across its privacy and data‑security work, the FTC typically measures consumer harms and benefits using:

• Unfairness analysis under Section 5 of the FTC Act: An act is “unfair” if it causes or is likely to cause substantial injury to consumers that is not reasonably avoidable and not outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or competition. This requires weighing harms against claimed benefits.
• Case‑specific evidence and economics: In investigations and rulemakings, FTC staff use consumer complaints, breach and fraud data, surveys, and economic analysis (e.g., financial losses, time spent resolving identity theft, risks of future harm) to quantify injuries and, where possible, benefits.
• Informational‑injury framework: Following its 2017 “Informational Injury” workshop, FTC staff highlighted a range of privacy/data‑security harms (financial losses, medical identity theft, doxing, disclosure of private information, erosion of trust) and urged more research and empirical methods to measure both the likelihood and magnitude of such harms.

The 2026 workshop is intended to update and improve these measurement approaches in light of changes in the data‑driven economy.

Yes. The FTC says the February 26, 2026 workshop “will bring together economists, academics, and other experts” to discuss how to measure consumer injuries and benefits in the data‑driven economy. While the announcement does not list every category of participant, this description and the FTC’s pattern in similar workshops imply participation from:

• Academics and researchers (economics, law, privacy, data science).
• Industry or technical experts involved in data collection, advertising, and analytics.
• Consumer‑protection and privacy experts (often including advocates and civil‑society groups).

The announcement does not yet specify whether foreign or international regulators will participate.

As of the January 8, 2026 announcement, the FTC has not yet posted a detailed public agenda, list of speakers, or a call for public comments for this workshop.

The press release and the FTC events listing both state that additional information, including details about the webcast, will be posted to the event page in the weeks before the workshop. That is where any agenda, speaker list, or comment process would later appear.