Advertisers Push Back on FCC Broadband Privacy Plan

The major associations representing billions of ad dollars have called on Congress to exercise its oversight to protect consumers and the economy from the Federal Communications Commission's proposed broadband privacy regulatory framework.

That came in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL), who are presiding over an FCC oversight hearing Sept. 15 at which all the commissioners are scheduled to testify. In the letter, they say that the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (a final order has yet to be voted) would "create restrictions that are unnecessary, overly burdensome, and outside the FCC's statutory authority." FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed new rules, which include requiring broadband subscribers to affirmatively agree to sharing their information with third parties for marketing purposes. The advertising trade groups say the FCC would be creating new restrictions on data collection that is central to "economic success and consumer benefits."