Free-market oriented groups urged the FCC to reverse its ISP privacy rules, approved in October. The FCC posted thousands of public comments this week on the rules (see 1703060054), many of them urging the agency to better align its rules with those of the FTC. The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) said the FCC should reject the October rules. “Part of the FCC’s agenda under new Chairman Ajit Pai should be to undo the errors and mistakes of the previous regime,” IPI said in a filing in docket 16-106. Under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, “the FCC made a distinct departure from sound policy analysis, disregarded empirical evidence, showed contempt for input from Congress and from other federal agencies, neglected cost/benefit and other economic analysis, and stubbornly pursued a narrow ideological agenda,” IPI said. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reminded the FCC that the privacy rules were approved in the “waning days” of the Obama presidency. “Thankfully, the Commission now has an opportunity to revisit these flawed rules,” ITIF said in a filing. “The Commission should vacate these rules in their entirety or significantly revise the rules such that they ‘parallel the [Federal Trade Commission’s] framework as closely as possible’ so as to not erect technology-based regulatory silos, unduly impede innovation, or diminish dynamic, cross-sector competition.” Consumer Policy Solutions said in a filing it makes little sense for the FCC to impose unique rules for just ISPs. “The process for developing privacy regulations should be through a multi-stakeholder process with FCC, FTC, and NTIA collaboration with consumer organizations, industry, academics, government and policy leaders, and privacy policy experts,” the group said. “Consumers want and need a more consistent approach to privacy regulation that will match their online experience.” But the Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Institute for Public Representation, Common Sense Kids Action, Consumer Action and the Electronic Privacy Information Center said the FCC should preserve the rules. “Children’s Advocates oppose the request of some petitioners to rescind the rules in their entirety,” the groups said in a filing. “Because the FTC’s Section 5 jurisdiction does not extend to common carriers, the effect of rescinding the rules in their entirety could mean that parents would have no control over their ISP’s use of their children’s information.” The groups also opposed petitions seeking to modify the privacy rules by changing the classification of certain sensitive information to nonsensitive, or replacing opt-in consent with opt-out. “These proposed modifications would significantly weaken privacy protections for children.”
Notable CROSS rulings
The FCC should grant a temporary waiver of the newspaper cross-ownership rule to Fox so it can continue owning the New York Post and two TV stations in New York and New Jersey while the agency considers petitions for reconsideration of media ownership rules, said Fox Television Stations in a waiver request posted in docket 07-260 Wednesday. Under existing rules, Fox had until Wednesday to come into compliance with the NBCO rule or file a new waiver request, it said. “Grant of the requested relief will allow the newly reconstituted Commission time to consider the status of the NBCO rule as part of the pending 2014 Quadrennial Review reconsideration proceeding without disrupting the highly competitive New York media marketplace or impairing the viability of diverse sources of information in that market." The FCC is seen as likely to relax ownership rules under Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1702160064). The broadcaster also argued its combination is legal even under the existing NBCO rules.
Europe's telecom and automotive industries will start testing connected cars in five EU countries this year, said the European Automotive Telecom Alliance (EATA). The move toward connected vehicles is part of a major EU effort to roll out 5G services that link to European Commission priorities such as the digital single market, the EC said in a November statement on cooperative intelligent transport systems. Transport and the automotive industry are "perhaps the most obvious 5G uses," said EC Vice President-Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Spectrum availability and harmonization, privacy, data protection and security issues remain unresolved, the EC and others said.
Sentinel Labs, SpyChatter and Vir2us settled separate but similar FTC allegations that they allegedly deceived consumers about their participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's (APEC) voluntary data-transfer system, said the commission in a Wednesday news release. Commissioners voted 2-0 to accept the three proposed consent orders, which will be published in the Federal Register soon, for comment through March 24. The commission will then decide whether to make the agreements final. The FTC alleged the companies said in their online privacy policies that they participated in the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules system when they didn't. The system "facilitates privacy-respecting data transfers between APEC member economies through a voluntary, enforceable mechanism, which certifies companies as being compliant with ... program requirements," said the FTC. The agency also said security company Sentinel Labs, which also does business as SentinelOne, "falsely" claimed participation in TRUSTe's privacy program. SpyChatter provides a secure messaging app while Vir2us is a cybersecurity company. The settlements bar the companies "from misrepresenting their participation, membership or certification in any privacy or security program sponsored by a government or self-regulatory or standard-setting organization." The companies didn't comment.
Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen said the commission is "working well" despite three vacancies, but didn't provide any insight into whom President Donald Trump would nominate to those seats or when, or whether she will permanently head the commission. She spoke Wednesday to a few reporters about several topics, including FTC's common-carrier exemption, after a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event that featured new reports on international cross-border data flows and attributes of effective data protection authorities (DPAs).
The Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s draft recommendations for improving the organization’s transparency drew early praise Wednesday in interviews. The draft recommendations, released Tuesday, are part of CCWG-Accountability’s work on a second set of recommended changes to the organization's accountability mechanisms (see 1610030042). CCWG-Accountability’s transparency work had already been seen as progressing smoothly, even as the working group’s exploration of how to address ICANN's post-Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition jurisdiction was raising U.S. stakeholders' eyebrows (see 1701030021). Comments on the draft transparency recommendations are due April 10, ICANN said.
The FCC will cut regulations that stand in the way of consumers getting better, faster broadband, Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday in an interview on Fox Business News. But Pai didn’t discuss specifics in an interview with host Trish Regan, which lasted about six minutes. Much of the focus was on media issues.
The FCC should eliminate its newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, said the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents black-owned media companies, in a letter in docket 14-50. Media is no longer dominated by TV networks and large metropolitan newspapers, it's dominated by even larger internet entities that aren't under FCC jurisdiction, NNPA said. Powerful online news aggregators such as Facebook are “a real threat" to local journalism, and those smaller, local entities shouldn’t be hampered by FCC regulations, NNPA said. “Today’s challenge is to ensure that these trusted community voices remain strong and economically viable against their unregulated rivals.” Cross-ownership rules restrict investment in media outlets and prevent them from innovating or upgrading their businesses, NNPA said.
The vast majority of the nearly 8,200 individuals who posted comments through midday Tuesday in the Department of Transportation’s docket on the use of mobile devices for voice calls on commercial airlines urged the agency to permanently ban such calls while in-flight. DOT asked in a December NPRM (docket DOT-OST-2014-0002) whether airlines should have to disclose their policy on airborne voice calls or whether the agency should prohibit such calls entirely on commercial aircraft (see 1612090056).
House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., asked the White House to renominate FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and to nominate commissioners for the two open spots, one expected to go to a Democrat and one to a Republican, Walden said Tuesday during a speech before the Media Institute. He detailed Commerce's telecom goals as Pai sat at one of the first tables before him. Walden often joked and broke from prepared remarks.