January 2014

Peter Fleischer, Google’s top privacy official, said the European Union’s “flawed” attempt to overhaul data-protection rules is “dead” and urged politicians to go back to the drawing board.

“Europe’s much-ballyhooed, and much-flawed, proposal to re-write its privacy laws for the next 20 years collapsed,” said Fleischer. “The old draft is dead, and something else will eventually be resurrected in its place.” European Union nations have dragged their heels over measures that could empower regulators to levy fines of as much as 100 million euros ($136 million) against technology companies for privacy violations when they process EU citizens’ data. US firms from Google to Facebook would be covered by the law. This is “another try of Fleischer to kill the data-protection regulation by calling it dead,” said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green Party politician who has steered the draft EU law through the European Parliament. The “EU would have already agreed if Google wouldn’t fight every regulation” with hundreds of millions of dollars “for lobbyists in Washington DC and Brussels.”

A plan by AT&T to explain how it shares some customer information with government agencies may not be enough to restore public trust, an attorney for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told securities regulators.

The attorney's letter dated January 6 keeps alive a surveillance debate the telecommunications giant had aimed to settle in December -- part of a growing national discussion of privacy rights fueled by the revelations of former government security contractor Edward Snowden. Under pressure from shareholder activists AT&T promised last month to publish a semi-annual rundown of things like how many law-enforcement agency requests it gets in criminal cases. But DiNapoli's office is worried the company's report could exclude pertinent details, for instance its sharing of customer calling records or requests for information the US company might receive from foreign governments on calls by religious dissidents. By leaving out such specifics, the letter from DiNapoli's attorney states, AT&T's report "would fail to address its essential objectives of restoring public trust."

In a congenial interview with Consumer Electronics president and CEO Gary Shapiro at the International CES in Las Vegas, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler stressed his commitment to innovation and competition and laid out some of his key priorities: pushing forward the transition to IP networks; E-Rate and 21st century educational initiatives; spectrum auctions; and dealing with disability issues.

On the issue of spectrum auctions, Chairman Wheeler argued that "there never has been a time for greater opportunity for America's broadcasters," adding that he was a "strong believer in the great national service broadcasters provide." He argued that the spectrum auctions provided broadcasters with an opportunity to reinvent themselves as digital players by sharing spectrum and using the savings in capital and operating expenses to invest in new digital services. The FCC is trying to get broadcasters to give up as much as 120 MHz of spectrum to auction for wireless broadband.

[Commentary] We cannot afford to ignore the burdens and barriers created by our antiquated communications laws.

The House Commerce Committee is launching a multi-year process to update the Communications Act -- the law that governs such a critical piece of our national economy. Originally written in 1934, and last updated before most Americans could fully grasp the Internet’s potential in 1996, the Communications Act governs with rules that are losing relevance by the day. Our work will be exhaustive, inviting industries and innovators, consumers and citizens to join us in an open dialogue. The communications and technology sectors -- and the laws that govern them -- are complex and interconnected. We need a broad, open conversation about the successes and failings of the Communications Act in order to honestly consider the sweeping changes many have long sought. And we need to be open to new ideas that will help ensure our laws can keep pace with our future. This #CommActUpdate is imperative to ensure continued American leadership in improving the connectivity and access to information enjoyed by all Americans. The Communications Act has had a profound impact in shaping the communications landscape, and it is beyond time we examine the law and find ways it can be updated to better meet the needs of today, and promote the innovations of tomorrow.

[Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) serves as Chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Rep. Greg. Walden (R-OR) serves as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.]