LAS VEGAS - Apple returned to CES for the first time in 28 years, but it wasn't to show off new devices (Cupertino-based Apple saves the big announcements for its own events) Apple was here to participate in the main theme of this year's CES: data privacy, and what tech companies are doing (or not doing) to protect their users [A panel of privacy officers, including Apple's Senior Director of Privacy Jane Horvath and Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan, were on hand for the discussion But Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who also attended the panel today (January 7), said that consumers should not be expected to take responsibility for data protection

Slaughter declined to identify specific companies' failures, but said not enough is being done across the industry to protect user data

"Even if consumers could get past privacy checks," she said, citing Facebook's latest privacy feature

"I'm a relatively educated privacy professional, but I can't possibly know everything that is being done with my data Data collectors and managers have a responsibility to minimize what is collected, minimize what is retained, and limit what is shared

Despite Apple CEO Tim Cook's past choice of words about Facebook's handling of user data, the two privacy officers were almost surprisingly diplomatic when discussing (or choosing not to discuss) competitors

"We don't want to have an opinion about what our competitors are doing," said Apple's Horvath

Facebook's Egan described "privacy protection" as a social media company and said the network is minimizing data collection as much as possible

"We collect the data we need to serve people and provide relevant advertising," Egan said 'We adhere to the concept of data minimization We can offer an advertising business model that protects privacy

Neither the panel moderator nor Egan's fellow panelists, including Horvath and Slaughter, refuted Egan's statement However, whenever he mentioned Facebook's "privacy by design" philosophy, there were murmurs and snickers from the audience After all, Facebook was fined $5 billion last year for violating a 2012 FTC consent decree requiring it to be transparent about its handling of user data

None of the panelists mentioned the FBI's request today for Apple to unlock two iPhones linked to the Pensacola, Florida, shootings; Horvath said Apple's commitment to end-to-end encryption was "a very good thing When discussing the commitment, he mentioned the request, which has been the subject of previous shootings and led to a confrontation with the FBI in 2016

"We've helped solve a lot of cases," he said There is no such content on our platform" Building backdoor encryption is not the way to solve such problems"

Slaughter agreed 'I am very sensitive to the desire for backdoors for legitimate and legitimate law enforcement reasons But we can't create backdoors for the good guys that the bad guys can't use"

For the latest news and hands-on impressions from Las Vegas, be sure to check out our CES 2020 hub