The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Technology Policy Institute recommended the FTC not bring action against Nomi Technologies, which provides in-store retail analytics (see 1504230036), in comments filed with the agency Tuesday. Technology Policy Institute President Thomas Lenard said in comments that although Nomi’s privacy policy once said a consumer could opt out of its analytics services at retail establishments, which was not accurate, an opt-out option was available on its website and Nomi “wasn’t legally required to offer either the global or the in-store opt-out.” ITIF Vice President Daniel Castro and Research Assistant Alan McQuinn said in comments that Nomi’s mistake in its privacy policy was “fairly insignificant” and there was “no evidence of consumer harm.” ITIF said the “FTC’s actions will ultimately do more harm than good.” The Application Developers Alliance agreed Nomi’s privacy policy was inaccurate, but said the “inaccuracy was de minimis and no consumer harm was alleged or apparent,” in comments to the FTC. ADA “believes that the penalty against Nomi is disproportionate and heavy-handed” and may “encourage companies to simplify their data practices and privacy policies to a degree that will always ensure their legality but will also transmit very little information to the consumer.” NetChoice Policy Counsel Carl Szabo said in comments to the FTC that the agency failed to show a violation of the FTC Act and could disincentivize businesses from giving consumers more control over their privacy. The Chamber of Commerce also submitted comments asking the agency to “vacate the proposed consent order and in its place formulate a policy to guide its decision to prosecute unfair and deceptive trade practices based on the spirit of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement and Fairness Act of 1996 and the Commission’s own 1997 civil penalty leniency policy.” The commission voted 3-2 to issue the complaint and accept the proposed consent order, the FTC said in a news release announcing its proposed consent order with Nomi in April. Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Commissioners Julie Brill and Terrell McSweeny issued a joint statement in favor of the order; Commissioners Maureen Ohlhausen and Joshua Wright issued separate dissenting statements. Ohlhausen noted in her dissent that Nomi is a “young company that attempted to go above and beyond its legal obligation to protect consumers but, in doing so, erred without benefiting itself,” a Nomi spokesman told us previously. “Commissioner Wright believes that Nomi did not violate the FTC Act,” the spokesman said. Nomi continually reviews its privacy policies to “ensure that they follow best practices and had already made the recommended changes in pursuit of that goal by updating our privacy policy over a year and a half ago, while we were still an early-stage startup that was less than a year old,” the spokesman said. FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich said it was “vital” for companies to “keep their privacy promises to consumers when working with emerging technologies, just as it is in any other context.” Rich said if consumers are told they have choices about their privacy, the company “should make sure all of those choices are actually available to them. Nomi’s tracking technology provided aggregated information on how many consumers passed by a store instead of going in, how long consumers stayed in the store, the types of devices used by consumers, how many repeat consumers a store had and whether the consumer had visited that store at another location, the FTC said. The FTC accepted comments until May 25 and said it would decide after the comment deadline whether to make the proposed consent order final.
Wireless has a big role to play if the FCC moves forward on a Lifeline program overhaul (see 1505010051), CTIA said in an ex parte filing at the agency. CTIA officials met with Gigi Sohn, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and officials in the Wireline Bureau, the group said. CTIA offered “general support for the Commission’s recent efforts to deter waste, fraud and abuse in the Lifeline program, including support for the National Lifeline Accountability Database, which has successfully limited duplicate enrollments,” the filing said. The FCC is expected to expand the program to offer a minimal level of broadband support, CTIA said. “In potentially defining broadband as an eligible service for purposes of the Lifeline program, CTIA encouraged the Commission to recognize the unique characteristics and ability of mobile broadband services to offer affordable broadband services to low-income consumers.” The filing was in docket 11-42.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai continued his attacks on the agency's net neutrality order, and also took aim at the agency's recent broadband privacy guidance (see 1505200059). "There’s been a dramatic shift towards heavy-handed regulation of the Internet -- one that has created tremendous uncertainty and is already resulting in broadband providers cutting back on investments," he said in his written remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday at the International Institute of Communications Telecommunications and Media Forum in Miami. Pai said FCC policy for years removed barriers to investment, helping spur broadband deployment and innovation. "Unfortunately, the U.S. government is now putting our success at risk," he said. "First and foremost is the FCC’s recent net neutrality decision -- a decision to apply last century’s public-utility laws to today’s broadband providers, a decision to regulate everything from the last mile of the network to interconnection near the Internet’s core." Pai said the FCC order, which adopted net neutrality rules and reclassified broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, complicated the business case for deployment. He said the regulations "give the FCC power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how broadband providers offer service and manage their networks." That injected uncertainty into the market, Pai said. "Take the so-called 'Internet conduct standard' as an example. It gives the FCC power to review businesses models and prohibit pricing plans that benefit consumers," he said. "Everything from zero rating to usage-based pricing might be on the chopping block. And 'might' is the key. The vaguely worded standard gives the FCC a lot of discretion." Pai also questioned the utility of recent Enforcement Bureau guidance on broadband privacy, which he said was vague. "What exactly do broadband providers have to do to comply with the law? I'm an FCC Commissioner and a lawyer, and I have no idea. You're guess is as good as mine. This 'guidance' casts far more shade than sunlight."
Representatives of Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) met with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and others at the agency to discuss the FCC’s April rejection of its waiver request to use 900 MHz spectrum for an IoT network. SNG had wanted to use 900 MHz business/industrial/land transportation channels for a third-party service providing machine-to-machine communications (see 1504130062). “We described numerous instances where the Bureau has granted license applications” for similar use in the 900 MHz channels, SNG said. “We provided an update on M2M’s business plan. We also discussed potential alternative means for SNG and M2M to obtain licensed narrowband spectrum in support of its business and its network, either through new applications or rulemaking.” The filing was posted Tuesday in docket 14-100.
It's a "shame" the U.S. government has restricted travel to trade shows like CES, where in the past attendance “was considered part of the job,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro in Shanghai on Sunday at the first CES Asia. He said CEA has had cooperation from the Chinese government that’s “very happy we’re here” and it wouldn’t be possible to hold CES Asia without its support because the government owns many of the companies and the media. Shapiro said CEA’s strong position on free trade can fall opposite of policies of China and other countries. CEA is very good at separating its role as an association representing U.S. companies and U.S. subsidiaries of global companies, he said. He marveled at Shanghai's infrastructure, including airports, mass transit and hotels, saying: “They’re doing something right here. The fact that they don’t allow Google and Twitter and Facebook and restrict the access of some companies is clearly their right to do as a country.” Espousing the value of an international trade show as a way to learn about other cultures, Shapiro said: “Anybody who thinks that their government has all the answers is probably wrong. I personally believe that if countries are trading, they’re less likely to be fighting.”
FCC E-rate changes are working, but this isn't the time for the agency to stop moving forward, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition in a speech Friday. The group understands “E-rate modernization was about far more than just adopting speed targets and revamping a budget,” Clyburn said in written remarks. “I am optimistic, because the FCC remains focused on its objective of ensuring access to world-class digital learning tools -- an objective shared by SHLB and the education community.” Clyburn asked attendees to provide plenty of feedback about how the revisions are working in practice. Also “tell us what we are doing right, because positive feedback is welcome as well,” she said. Clyburn also repeated calls for similar overhaul of the USF Lifeline program. The FCC isn't meeting a congressional mandate to ensure that all Americans, including those with low incomes and in rural and high-cost areas, have access to advanced telecom and information services at affordable prices, Clyburn said. “Lifeline, the only universal service program focused on bridging the affordability gap, remains stuck in an era where leg warmers, stretch stirrup pants, and scrunchies were the fashion craze, and talking on our home telephone or sending a letter through the mail were the main means of communicating.” Lifeline should help people build a better life, she said. The program's goal should be “for it to work so effectively that current subscribers will no longer need Lifeline, or any other federal benefits program,” she said. Industry and FCC officials have predicted Lifeline changes could headline the agency’s June 18 open meeting (see 1505010051). Chairman Tom Wheeler is to circulate draft orders for that meeting Thursday. Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach said in a blog post Friday that the FCC has drawn some important lessons from its Low Income Broadband Pilot Program, including lessons for possible Lifeline changes. Among the lessons is that consumers “respond well to having a choice of plans” and all households don’t have the same needs for “data speeds, usage amounts, service type and devices,” Veach wrote. Price matters, even if it is not the only barrier to adoption, and carriers “aren’t necessarily the best” at addressing these barriers, especially “lack of digital literacy and relevance to one's life,” Veach said. There is no “silver bullet,” she said. “While the pilots were focused on different approaches for adoption, let's be clear that Lifeline is focused on ensuring services are affordable, not to solve the broadband adoption challenge,” she said. “As the Commission moves forward to consider how to restructure the Lifeline program for the digital age, the pilot report will help provide useful data for the Commission and public to consider.” The FCC also released the report on the pilot program Friday.
The FCC Media Bureau granted TiVo’s request for a temporary waiver of the agency’s home networking digital interface requirement for cable operators that use the company’s set-top boxes, said an order in Friday's Daily Digest on docket 97-80. The waiver expires June 1, 2017, and though Verizon and NCTA had asked for the waiver to be industrywide, it applies only to companies using TiVo boxes, the order said. TiVo had argued that its set-tops already meet the intent of the home networking requirement by allowing consumers to send video content throughout their homes.
Applications to the Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program are due July 6, RUS said in Friday's Federal Register. DLT grants are designed to give access to education, training and health care resources for rural Americans, it said. The grants provide financial assistance to encourage and improve telemedicine services and distance learning services in rural areas through the use of telecommunications, computer networks and related advanced technologies to be used by students, teachers, medical professionals and rural residents, said the agency.
NCTA lobbied the FCC against Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) for broadband, while investors in the company lobbied for it, ex parte filings posted Thursday in docket 13-213 show. The company has sought rules adding 22 MHz to U.S. wireless broadband spectrum inventory, which it has said will ease congestion that is hurting Wi-Fi service quality. Detractors from a variety of other industries have been concerned about interference (see 1505060036). NCTA noted that without "appropriate testing," there's opposition to commission action here from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, CEA, Entertainment Software Association, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. Globalstar's TLPS demo showed "its many limitations," NCTA said its lawyers told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "Globalstar used only specialized, expensive enterprise access points designed to minimize interference, designed only for indoor use, and operating at a small fraction of the radiated power level it seeks authorization to use." Globalstar wants to use its spectrum "more intensively for additional innovative services," said investors who back FCC-proposed rules from November 2013 to let the company provide TLPS in its mobile satellite service spectrum at 2483.5-2495 MHz and adjacent, unlicensed spectrum at 2473-2483.5 MHz. "Since the deployment of its second-generation MSS constellation, Globalstar has experienced significant growth in its MSS business and expects demand for its satellite services to accelerate further after the completion of its second generation ground infrastructure in 2016," said the investors. Representatives from Beck Mack, Litespeed Management, Steelhead Partners, Vulcan Capital and York Capital Management had meetings with aides to all FCC members other than Mignon Clyburn, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly himself and Chief Mindel De La Torre and others in the International Bureau.
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on a proposed eligible services list for schools and libraries participating in the USF E-rate program for the funding year starting July 1, 2016, said a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. Among the changes mandated by the December E-rate order are expanded use of services lighting up dark fiber, the notice said. Comments are due June 22, replies July 6.