Following a four-year term as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Jon Leibowitz will step down from his role on February 15, 2013. In a statement released by the agency, Leibowitz stated that “I have been honored to head this extraordinary, bipartisan Commission and to work alongside the best staff in federal government,” and “[o]ur small but mighty agency has safeguarded the privacy of Americans and stopped predatory financial practices by companies taking advantage of cash-strapped consumers.”
During his nearly decade-long tenure as a Commissioner and then as Chairman at the FTC, Leibowitz presided over a time in which the agency has grown to play an increasingly central role in U.S. privacy regulation. For instance, during his tenure as Chairman the agency has entered into numerous long-term consent decrees with prominent online companies, issued a substantial revision of its rules governing children’s privacy, and oversaw the release of a key agency report on consumer privacy.