Consumer Watchdog: FCC Should Regulate Edge Privacy

Representatives of Consumer Watchdog have talked with top counselors to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to warn that the FCC's set-top proposal does not contain sufficient teeth to protect consumer privacy from mass data collection and monetizing by Google and others. According to an ex parte filing on the phone call, they told the FCC that it should use its authority both to require consumer-facing privacy pledges by third parties getting access to set-top content and data—so the Federal Trade Commission can enforce violations of unfair or deceptive practices prohibitions, but also use its direct authority to regulate edge privacy, an authority the FCC has suggested it does not have.

The proposal would require third parties to pledge to abide by the same privacy protections multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) must adhere to, but Consumer Watchdog says that pledge must be directly to consumers, rather than to MVPDs or the FCC. In addition, they say that the FCC has direct authority to regulate and enforce privacy itself under Sec. 629, which is the mandate to insure the availability of set-tops from unaffiliated third parties.