The FTC is watching data portability issues closely, as they tie into consumer and antitrust, Consumer Protection Bureau Director Andrew Smith told the agency’s virtual workshop Tuesday. The FTC is following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent announcement of a potential rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Act Section 1033, which “authorizes the CFPB to create rules enhancing consumers’ access to their financial data,” Smith said. Data portability can increase consumer choice and control and foster competition by lowering barriers to entry, he said. increased data flows raise questions about how to properly ensure data is secured, he added. Data portability could eventually help balance network effects of platforms, said Karolina Mojzesowicz, European Commission deputy head-Unit for Data Protection, Directorate General for Justice and Consumers. Consumers are more sensitive about their data and more proactive about looking for services offering data portability, she said.
Hughes joined Viasat in questioning SpaceX latency (see 2009180013). In a coming FCC International Bureau filing, Hughes said the claimed ping times of 18 and 19 milliseconds were based on a very lightly loaded network and it's "unlikely that SpaceX can meet its alleged 100/20 Mbps speeds at a mass market capability." It said the FCC should look at SpaceX claims as part of the company's pending application to operate at lower orbit (see 2004200003). SpaceX, in a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai recapped in an ex parte filing Monday, said its lower orbit application "is a crucial component" to tackling the digital divide and providing polar region coverage. It also argued against a 12.2-12.7 GHz rulemaking, and said MVDDS purchasers of the spectrum knew they had to protect low earth orbit satellite operations in the band.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing industry guidance for its August restrictions on Huawei (see 2008170043), said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce-Export Administration Matt Borman. BIS will issue FAQs similar to its “fairly extensive” FAQs for new licensing restrictions for military-related exports, he told BIS' Material and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee meeting. He asked METAC members and industry to provide input on the pre-rule for foundational technologies (see 2008260013). The agency is looking for more candidates for emerging technology controls and wants to get back into the “process” of using industry comments to develop its own controls, Borman said Thursday.
Protect vehicle to everything in the 5.9 GHz band from unlicensed device users, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation asked the FCC. “Recent filings in this proceeding by NCTA and CableLabs erroneously downplay the risk of harmful interference … from unlicensed operations,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138: The CableLabs study “was done solely through modeling that makes unrealistic and simplistic assumptions that, in many cases, do not reflect real world tests or operating conditions.” Commissioners are expected to consider a 5.9 GHz order as early as next month (see 2009090058). NCTA and CableLabs didn’t comment.
CTA has “a keen interest” in keeping the market free of deceptive Made in the USA (MUSA) marketing claims “about any aspect of the products and services that consumers use," it commented, posted Tuesday in docket FTC-2020-0056. A rule barring deceptive MUSA labels without first reassessing “consumer perception evidence is to put the cart before the horse,” said the association. A July 16 NPRM proposed prohibiting marketers from using “unqualified” MUSA labels unless a product’s final assembly or “significant” processing occurs in the U.S., plus “all or virtually all” components are sourced domestically. The FTC hasn’t done a comprehensive consumer perception study since the 1990s, and “forging ahead” with the rules without new research “raises an impossible situation for many U.S. manufacturers,” said CTA: Some components, “at least in the short term, can only be made internationally,” it said. The rule also would be “counterproductive” for promoting and expanding American manufacturing.
The Treasury Department will soon require declarations to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. when transactions involving critical technologies would normally be subject to an American export license. Its final rule makes some changes and clarifications, partly due to industry comments. It's effective Oct. 15, said Tuesday's Federal Register. Existing declaration requirements for critical tech apply to transactions “for which specific actions occurred” Feb. 13-Oct. 14.
Oracle was silent Monday about its status as the likely buyer of TikTok’s U.S. business after Microsoft disclosed that TikTok parent ByteDance rejected its offer. Oracle CEO Safra Catz put TikTok questions off limits at the very top of her fiscal Q1 call last week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed on CNBC Monday that the Trump administration got "a proposal over the weekend" for making Oracle TikTok's "trusted technology partner, with Oracle making many representations for national security issues." The proposal includes the "commitment to create TikTok Global as a U.S.-headquartered company with 20,000 new jobs," he said. It will be reviewed this week at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. before a "recommendation" is made to President Donald Trump, he said. Microsoft was confident its proposal “would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” said the company Sunday. “We would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation.” Trump’s Aug. 6 executive order bans transactions with ByteDance and WeChat parent Tencent after Sept. 20 if their U.S. operations aren’t sold to American partners (see 2008070032). ByteDance and TikTok sued Aug. 24 to block the EO (see 2008240047).
Comments on NTIA’s internet use survey questions are due Thursday (see 2009110051), a spokesperson said. The additional 30-day comment period is to OMB for the Paperwork Reduction Act.
NTIA extended by 30 days its comment deadline for its internet use survey, says a notice in Monday's Federal Register. NTIA originally opened a 60-day comment period July 7.
The U.S. response to COVID-19 validates the FCC got things right when it overturned the 2015 net neutrality rules three years ago, blogged American Enterprise Institute's Matt Au and Bret Swanson Thursday. “The pandemic has validated the historical US approach to broadband that values private investment over government regulation,” they said: “Facing unprecedented increases in demand of 20 to 40 percent during COVID-19 quarantines, American networks and network operators responded admirably, while European regulators had to ask Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon to reduce the quality of their video streams to ease demand on networks.”