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former FTC Conference Center
601 New Jersey Avenue, NW Washington DC 20001

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Event Description

The Federal Trade Commission will host a day-long public workshop to consider the impact of technological advances on the consumer debt collection system. The workshop will explore how changing technology affects the ways in which debt collectors communicate with consumers and obtain and process information about consumers and debts. Technologies to be discussed include mobile telephones, email, social media, information gathering tools, and the software platforms that collectors use, including auto-dialers, databases, and payment portals. The discussion will focus upon how these technologies affect collectors' compliance with the law, consumer protection concerns that may arise from their use, and the proper response to those concerns.

Request to Participate

Individuals and organizations may submit requests to participate as panelists. Such requests should be submitted in electronic form to dctech@ftc.gov. Please refer to the Request To Participate As Panelists part of the "Supplementary Information" section of the Federal Register notice for complete information on submitting a request to participate. Prospective panelists should submit a statement detailing their expertise on the issues to be addressed and contact information, on or before 5:00 p.m. EST, Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Panelists will be selected based on expertise and the need to include a broad range of views.

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  • Request for Comments

    Interested parties are invited to submit written comments electronically or in paper form. For information on how to file a comment, please refer to the Instructions For Filing Comments part of the "Supplementary Information" section of the Federal Register notice. Comments in electronic form should be submitted using the following Web link: https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/debtcollecttechworkshop (and following the instructions on the web-based form). Comments in paper form should be delivered, preferably by courier or overnight service, to: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex F), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. To be considered in preparation for the workshop, comments must be received by April 7, 2011, although the Commission will accept comments until May 27, 2011.

FTC Privacy Policy

Under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) or other laws, we may be required to disclose to outside organizations the information you provide when you pre-register. The Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments, whether filed in paper or electronic form, and as a matter of discretion, we make every effort to remove home contact information for individuals from the public comments before posting them on the FTC website.

The FTC Act and other laws we administer permit the collection of your pre-registration contact information and the comments you file to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate.  Under the Freedom of Information Act or other laws, we may be required to disclose to outside organizations the information you provide when you pre-register.  For additional information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see the Commission’s Privacy Act system for public records and comprehensive privacy policy.

This event will be open to the public and may be photographed, videotaped, webcast, or otherwise recorded.  By participating in this event, you are agreeing that your image — and anything you say or submit — may be posted indefinitely at ftc.gov or on one of the Commission's publicly available social media sites.