FCC Says House Commerce Didn't Get January Briefing on Data Disclosure Due to Shutdown
FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson told House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the agency didn’t provide an emergency briefing for the committee on wireless carriers' alleged unauthorized disclosure of consumers' real-time location data during the partial federal shutdown (see…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
1901110042) because it couldn’t under the Antideficiency Act. Pallone wrote Chairman Ajit Pai Jan. 11 asking for the meeting and a follow-up letter Feb. 19 requesting documents on the FCC’s response to the disclosures. “Career attorneys within the Office of General Counsel concluded that Commission employees would not be available to prepare the Chairman or to provide the briefing themselves because the work did not fall within one of the recognized exemptions” in the ADA, Johnson said, in a letter released this week. “The Commission takes allegations of unauthorized use and disclosure of consumer data very seriously,” he said. “Last year the Enforcement Bureau initiated an investigation into reports that wireless carriers were allowing third parties to use consumers’ location information without their consent.” The requested briefing took place Feb. 7, Johnson said.