On November 3, Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California held that federal law does not bar the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) from requiring telecommunications companies to hand over, under an adequate protective order, confidential subscriber data to The Utility Reform Network (TURN) as part of an … Continue Reading
Last week, the FCC issued two TCPA rulings that shed further light on whether and under what circumstances an individual can provide “prior express consent”—or convey such consent—for another in the context of automated or prerecorded informational calls or text messages to mobile phones. One of these rulings came in response to a Petition for … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Enforcement Bureau issued a reminder that annual CPNI certifications for calendar year 2013 must be filed with the FCC by March 1, 2014. The FCC requires telecommunications service providers (including paging providers, commercial mobile radio services providers, and calling card providers) and interconnected VoIP service providers to file an … Continue Reading
By Maria-Martina Yalamova & Mark Young On 12 December 2013, the Advocate General (“AG”) to the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”), Mr Cruz Villalón, gave an opinion that the EU’s Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC (the “Directive”) violates the fundamental right to privacy in the EU. His reason, in short, is that … Continue Reading
In light of growing concerns over cybersecurity and evolving technology and operational practices, Ofcom (the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries) is seeking views on whether its existing guidance on network security should be revised. Interested parties have until 21 February 2014 to respond. Depending on the responses received, Ofcom intends … Continue Reading
Billions of bulk phone call records used for government surveillance programs should be stored with telecommunications providers rather than with the NSA, according to reports of a proposal from a presidential task forced examining reforms to surveillance authorities. Recommendations from the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology were presented to the President on Friday, … Continue Reading
Earlier today, the FCC placed on public notice two petitions requesting that the agency clarify or forbear from enforcing certain aspects of its new TCPA regulations that went into effect on October 16, 2013. Those regulations, which we summarized here, created, among other things, a new “prior express written consent” requirement for the transmission of … Continue Reading
Earlier today, two entities — the Direct Marketing Association (“DMA”) and a Coalition of Mobile Engagement Providers (“Coalition”) — filed petitions at the FCC asking the agency to stay and forbear from enforcing, or clarify, certain aspects of the “prior express written consent” requirement that went into effect yesterday for prerecorded calls to residential numbers and autodialed … Continue Reading
Last week, I spoke on a panel at the IAPP Privacy Academy about upcoming changes to FCC regulations governing the “prior express consent” requirement for, among other things, autodialed promotional text message and prerecorded call programs under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). These changes will take effect next week, on October 16, 2013. Some … Continue Reading
Recent news that the U.S. Justice Department obtained telephone records for two months covering more than 100 journalists working for the Associated Press has prompted lawmakers to propose new statutes meant to strengthen protections against the kinds of requests that our Jeff Kosseff described as “undermin[ing]” the “entire Fourth Estate.”… Continue Reading
Germany has passed a law which amends several existing laws, including the Telecommunications Act, clarifying in particular the obligations of telecommunications providers to disclose customer data to law enforcement authorities. The existing disclosure obligations relate to “customer data”, which is data of subscribers collected for the purpose of establishing, regulating the contents of, modifying or … Continue Reading
As a reminder, telecommunications carriers must submit their annual certifications regarding customer proprietary network information (CPNI) by March 1. CPNI is private customer information concerning telecommunications. Telecommunications carriers and providers of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) must certify annually to the FCC that they comply with their obligations to protect and limit disclosure of … Continue Reading
