AT&T Is Big Backer of Chairman Blackburn Privacy Bill

Top AT&T DC executive Robert Quinn said his company is "very, very" supportive of a bill (The BROWSER Act) from House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would "harmonize" the enforcement of online privacy by Internet service providers and edge providers like Google and Facebook.

He said AT&T backed the bill for three main reasons. First, he said, it said everyone has to live under the same rules. Second, was putting all the regulation at the Federal Trade Commission, so it would be the same rules and the same regulator, rather than dividing it up between the FCC and FTC. Third, he said, the bill preempts state privacy laws, which means there aren't 50 different state regimes around privacy. "There is a rule that everyone has to live with" rather than a "patchwork" of rules.