Congress should support legislation that would ensure websites respect user rights to not be tracked online, DuckDuckGo said Wednesday, releasing a draft bill. Hundreds of millions of internet users enable a “Do Not Track” setting on their browsers, the search platform said, but “most all sites ignore it.” The draft bill prohibits default third-party tracking and “first-party tracking outside what the user expects.”
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to CEOs of the four major national wireless carriers Wednesday asking what they're doing to make sure real-time location information they collect isn’t being sold to data aggregators. News of the sale of the data to bounty hunters and related businesses broke last May, she noted. “This is a personal and national security issue that affects every American with a cell phone,” Rosenworcel said. The FCC said it’s investigating but hasn’t “provided the public with any details,” she said. “Nor has it taken any public action to ensure this activity has stopped.” Rosenworcel released letters to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. “The FCC needs to do more to protect the privacy and security of American consumers,” she said. “It needs to do more to provide the public with basic information about what is happening with their real-time location information.” Verizon was “the first to take action” when questions arose last summer, a spokesperson said: “We followed through with our pledge and have fully terminated our location aggregator arrangements.” AT&T is "committed to end the aggregator services in March, which we did,” said a spokesperson there. The other carriers and CTIA didn't comment. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also wants quick action on the data-selling complaints (see 1902080056).
Microsoft will categorize user data as required or optional, document it publicly and submit a biannual report describing changes to required data collection, Corporate Vice President Julie Brill blogged Tuesday. Required data collection will include data “necessary to making our products and services work as expected by the customer, or to help ensure their security,” Brill said. That includes search query terms, IP addresses, device types and diagnostic data, and consumers have the option to opt out of collection in certain instances. Optional means collection of data not “essential to the product or service experience,” she wrote. That includes, for example, data about photos inserted into Word documents. The biannual report defining data collection will be published at privacy.microsoft.com.
Not all automated technology, such as ability to upload a list of customer numbers that are called with human intervention and with live agents ready, should be considered an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, representatives of mortgage servicing company Mr. Cooper told FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre, per a docket 02-278 posting Tuesday. It pushed for a read of TCPA that has ATDS including dialers that randomly or sequentially generate and dial numbers or any system that dials automatically from a list without human intervention. It said its proposed definition of dialing automatically would mean legitimate businesses can still use such technology but have enough staffing to field all calls. The company said the FCC should clarify that when one has clear channels for consumers to indicate how they want to be contacted, consumer failure to use those channels doesn't mean revocation of consent.
The FCC Broadnet order says government contractors aren't “persons” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and any other read could mean Census not being fully deployed and hurting student loan debt servicers ensuring borrowers don't default, the servicers said in an FCC docket 18-152 posting Tuesday. The letter echoed concerns from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (see 1904090005). The Student Loan Servicing Alliance, Navient Solutions, Nelnet Servicing and Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency said the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week in American Association of Political Consultants v. FCC "heightens the urgency" to preserve the 2016 Broadnet order. The court reversed a lower court decision and sided with the plaintiffs that the TCPA's debt-collection exemption contravenes the First Amendment's free speech clause, severing that flawed exemption from the law's ban on calls to cellphones by use of an automated dialing system or artificial or prerecorded voice. The appellant plaintiffs had sought to have the entire ban thrown out on constitutional grounds. Deciding were Judges Robert King, Barbara Milano Keenan and Marvin Quattlebaum, with King penning the decision.
California Senate appropriators moved the attorney general’s privacy bill (SB-561) proposing edits to the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) into the Appropriations Committee's “suspense file,” a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly. Monday’s procedural move delays consideration until later this session. Hearings on other privacy bills are planned Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee and Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, and Wednesday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and Communications and Conveyance Committee. The Assembly Privacy panel last week cleared several industry-backed bills amending CCPA (see 1904240037).
Apple representatives said the FCC shouldn’t adopt rules for the 6 GHz band that would put users’ privacy at risk. Technical rules in an NPRM “will robustly protect incumbents, making privacy-intrusive device-identification requirements unnecessary,” the company said in docket 18-295, posted Thursday. “Successful rules for the 6 GHz band will support innovative consumer products, including portable and mobile devices, in addition to access points.” Apple met with aides to all commissioners, except Chairman Ajit Pai. The agency is examining Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use of the band (see 1903190050).
An Indiana bill to combat robocalls cleared the legislature unanimously Wednesday. The House voted 97-0 and the Senate 49-0 after a conference committee worked out a final bill that gives exemptions to ISPs and financial institutions (see 1903210010). It goes next to the governor. Several other state legislative chambers passed broadband bills. The Washington state Senate passed SB-5511 to create a state broadband office and grant program, and to expand state USF’s purpose to include broadband. The Senate voted 48-0 Wednesday to concur with House amendments. In Iowa, state senators concurred with a House amendment and voted 50-0 Wednesday to pass broadband grants HF-772. Colorado senators voted 35-0 Wednesday for SB-107 aimed at making it easier for rural electric cooperatives to provide broadband, though co-ops have raised red flags about its restrictions (see 1904150043). SB-107 goes next to the House. The Texas House voted 123-12 the same day for HB-2423 to set up a Public Utility Commission broadband office and establish a grant program (see 1903250062). It goes to the Senate.
Facebook expects to lose between $3 billion and $5 billion as a result of the FTC’s investigation of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and data privacy practices, said Wednesday’s Q1 report, signaling a potential record fine for the agency. “The matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome." The report includes a $3 billion legal expense “accrued in the first quarter of 2019 related to the ongoing” FTC probe. The tech platform reported $2.4 billion profit for the quarter, down 51 percent from the year-ago quarter. The company didn’t comment.
The FCC is starting to look at a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which raises questions about a 2016 order implementing a provision in the 2015 budget law, said Mark Stone, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, at an FCBA event Wednesday evening. The order allows robocalls to cellphones for purposes of government debt collection (see 1608110038). The court severed the debt-collection exemption “from the balance of the automated call ban” and remanded the issue to a lower court for “further proceedings as may be appropriate.” The debt-collection exemption “fails strict scrutiny review” and is “fatally underinclusive,” the court ruled Wednesday in American Association of Political Consultants v. FCC. “By authorizing many of the intrusive calls that the automated call ban was enacted to prohibit, the debt-collection exemption subverts the privacy protections underlying the ban,” the court said. “The impact of the exemption deviates from the purpose of the automated call ban and, as such, it is an outlier among the other statutory exemptions.” Judge Robert King wrote the order, supported by Judges Barbara Keenan and Marvin Quattlebaum.