The United States Telecom Association says the FCC should align its net neutrality rules with those of the Federal Trade Commission. The issue is of interest because the Tom Wheeler Commission passed regs that treat internet traffic equally so a broadband provider can’t block or slow down consumers’ ability to use services, applications, or view websites based on who pays the most. The rules affect what providers like Verizon and AT&T can do concerning free data wireless plans powered by towers.
“In filing this petition, USTelecom is laying out a path for the FCC to fully harmonize its broadband privacy rules with the well-established privacy and data security framework used by the FTC. The FCC’s current order creates a confusing approach that does not serve consumer privacy interests well,” said USTelecom President/CEO Jonathan Spalter in a statement.
“So long as this Commission classifies broadband internet access as a ‘common carrier service,’ it should ensure technological neutrality and avoid consumer confusion,” says USTelecom in a Petition for Reconsideration filed Tuesday at the FCC.
One beef USTelecom has: the order does away with cost-benefit analysis and treats “even the most ephemeral privacy interest as though it had infinite weight and simply disregards the economic costs of foreclosing productive uses of information. For example, the FCC subjects ISPs to a burdensome opt-in regime for marketing uses of all web-browsing information on the theory that all such information is equally ‘sensitive,’” according to the telecom trade lobby.
Under the FTC however, “internet companies enjoy greater flexibility in their use of web-browsing data except where the underlying subject matter itself is sensitive, such as information that reveals medical conditions or personal finance,” writes the association.
“The agency ignores facts when it based the regs on the premise that ISPs are nearly omniscient and have greater visibility into consumer data than any other internet company. That premise is false, as Commissioners Pai and O’Rielly and many commenters have explained.”
Indeed, GOP Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly intend to revisit Net Neutrality regulation “as soon as possible,” Inside Towers reported.
January 4, 2017
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