On Sept. 13, 2021 President Biden nominated Alvaro Bedoya as a Commissioner to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If confirmed, Bedoya would replace the recently departed Commissioner Rohit Chopra who now heads up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a privacy expert, Bedoya will provide a fresh perspective to the agency charged with antitrust enforcement and consumer protection.

Bedoya was born in Peru and grew up in upstate New York. He earned his B.A. from Harvard College and his J.D. from Yale Law School where he received the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. After graduating from law school, he spent two years as an associate at WilmerHale before departing to work in the U.S. Senate. A long-time aide to Sen. Al Franken, Bedoya was the first chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. During his tenure he worked on the USA FREEDOM Act and other privacy and surveillance issues related to biometrics and location tracking. Those who worked with Bedoya on Capitol Hill characterize him as willing to engage with industry and to maintain an open dialogue. See Margaret Harding McGill, Privacy Advocate Will Be New Big Tech Threat at FTC, Axios (Sept. 14, 2021).