The FCC has released the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on “Restoring Internet Freedom” that was adopted by a 2-1 vote at the Commission’s open meeting on May 18. The NPRM is substantively very similar to the draft released by Chairman Pai on April 27, and the comment deadlines remain the same: July 17 for … Continue Reading
Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has introduced a bill, the “Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly Act of 2017” (“BROWSER Act,” H.R. 2520) that would create new online privacy requirements. The BROWSER Act would require both ISPs and edge providers (essentially any service provided over the Internet) to provide users with notice of … Continue Reading
The Ninth Circuit announced today that the full court will rehear the case in which the three-judge panel opinion had dismissed the FTC’s lawsuit against AT&T for allegedly violating Section 5 of the FTC Act due to past “throttling” practices around unlimited data plans. According to the panel opinion, the FTC lacked jurisdiction over AT&T’s … Continue Reading
In a widely anticipated step, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has released a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on the legal framework that governs broadband providers and related net neutrality questions. Most notably from a privacy perspective, the draft NPRM proposes to find that broadband Internet access service is an “information service” under the Communications … Continue Reading
On April 24th, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) and a coalition of 37 other civil society groups sent a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) to act on an August 2015 petition to repeal the FCC’s data retention mandate under 47 C.F.R. §42.6 (“Retention of Telephone Toll Records”). The mandate requires communications carriers … Continue Reading
The House voted today to adopt a joint resolution to repeal the FCC’s broadband privacy rules, following the Senate’s vote to adopt the same resolution last week. President Trump is expected to sign the resolution into law, which overrules the FCC rules that were set to go into effect later this year. The mechanism for … Continue Reading
Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) reintroduced a pair of bills today relating to the cybersecurity of cars and aircraft, which would impose affirmative security, disclosure, and consent requirements on manufacturers and air carriers. The Security and Privacy in Your Car (“SPY Car”) Act and Cybersecurity Standards for Aircraft to Improve Resilience (“Cyber … Continue Reading
On March 2nd, Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced three pieces of legislation that would expand the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authority over the cybersecurity practices of communications network providers. The first bill, the “Securing IoT Act of 2017” (introduced by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA)), would expand the FCC’s certification authority … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the FCC released an Enforcement Advisory to remind political campaigns about their obligations under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). The Advisory did not set forth any new rules for calls and texts; rather, it confirmed existing rules and reminded political campaigns that they are subject to them. The Advisory first confirmed that prerecorded … Continue Reading
According to a recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service (“CRS”), the extent of state law preemption in recent federal legislative proposals relating to data security is unclear. Several bills introduced in the 114th Congress would impose federal data security or breach notification requirements on covered entities, similar to existing requirements in nearly every state. … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in AT&T’s appeal of a lower court decision to not dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) complaint alleging that AT&T misled consumers by limiting its “unlimited” data plan for mobile customers. As we previously reported, in October 2014 the FTC filed a complaint alleging that AT&T … Continue Reading
Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) rejected a petition from consumer advocates asking the FCC to extend its Open Internet Order by requiring edge providers such as Facebook and Amazon to follow the privacy regulations of Section 222 and to require those edge providers to honor “Do Not Track” requests from consumers. The FCC … Continue Reading
By Hannah Lepow Yesterday the FCC announced that it has entered into a $595,000 settlement agreement with Cox Communications to resolve an investigation into whether the company failed to protect its customers’ personal information when it suffered a data breach in 2014. This is the first privacy and data security enforcement action the FCC Enforcement … Continue Reading
In one of the first decisions evaluating Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claims under the FCC’s recent omnibus TCPA order, the Northern District of California dismissed a putative class action lawsuit alleging that AOL violated the TCPA when users of its Instant Messenger service (AIM) sent text messages to incorrect recipients. After the court dismissed … Continue Reading
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the text of its long-awaited order addressing certain aspects of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and related FCC rules. The order addressed a total of 21 petitions seeking “clarification or other actions” regarding the TCPA, principally in connection with automated calls and text messages. Although the … Continue Reading
In a consent decree adopted yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission, two telecommunications carriers — TerraCom, Inc., and YourTel America, Inc. — agreed to pay a $3.5 million civil penalty and adhere to a three-year compliance program to settle allegations that the carriers violated the federal Communications Act by failing to adequately protect “proprietary information” … Continue Reading
In an order adopted at Thursday’s Open Meeting, the Federal Communications Commission acted on 23 petitions or other requests for clarification regarding the application of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a federal law that restricts telemarketing and certain other types of calls. The FCC has issued a news release describing yesterday’s order as an effort to … Continue Reading
A federal judge in the Northern District of California recently certified his denial of AT&T’s Motion to Dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) complaint alleging that AT&T misled consumers by limiting its “unlimited” data plan for mobile customers. This means that AT&T will now be able to appeal that decision to the Ninth Circuit.… Continue Reading
As we previously reported, on April 28, the FCC held a public workshop on protecting the privacy of consumers who use broadband Internet access services.… Continue Reading
The FCC has announced its agenda and panelists for its public workshop on protecting the privacy of consumers who use broadband Internet access services, which will be held on April 28. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will give opening remarks and Matt Blaze, Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, will … Continue Reading
As we previously reported, in January AT&T filed a Motion to Dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) complaint alleging that AT&T engaged in unfair and deceptive conduct in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act when it “throttled” mobile broadband subscribers who were “grandfathered” into the company’s unlimited mobile data plan. AT&T moved to … Continue Reading
The Federal Communications Commission will hold a workshop on April 28 to explore its role in protecting the privacy of broadband Internet access users. The Commission’s recent net neutrality order applied certain privacy requirements to broadband access providers, including Section 222 of the Communications Act. That statute requires telecommunications carriers to protect the confidentiality of … Continue Reading
Following Mark Zuckerberg’s opening keynote at Mobile World Congress on Monday, Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Chairman Tom Wheeler took the stage yesterday. As Wheeler’s first public appearance at an industry event since the FCC’s landmark vote last week to enforce net neutrality, the keynote was expected to be closely followed by global counterparts, and InsidePrivacy … Continue Reading
Last week AT&T filed a Reply in support of its Motion to Dismiss challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) attempt to exercise jurisdiction over the company pursuant to Section 5 of the FTC Act. As we previously reported, the FTC filed a complaint against AT&T alleging that the company misled consumers by reducing the data … Continue Reading
