FCC Battles New York Times Over Net Neutrality Comments

Striking back at The New York Times Company, the Federal Communications Commission is urging a judge to rule that the agency need not disclose information about net neutrality commenters because doing so would compromise their privacy. “If the FCC is compelled to disclose an individual’s IP address, operating system and version, browser platform and version, and language settings, and that information is linked to the individual’s publicly-available name and postal address, that disclosure would result in clearly unwarranted invasions of personal privacy,” the FCC argues in papers filed with US District Court Judge Lorna Schofield in the Southern District of New York.  “Anyone who can link an individual commenter’s name and postal address with his or her IP address and User-Agent header can commercially exploit the user’s personal information for financial gain, commit identity theft, or otherwise harm the user,” the agency writes. FCC associate chief information officer Erik Scheiberg adds in court papers that even old data about IP addresses can be used for tracking. “Even 'outdated' IP address information can be useful to digital advertisers,” Scheiberg writes in a declaration submitted to the judge. He adds that ad companies could match older IP addresses with commenters' names and addresses in order to “identify and learn more about a person’s past online activity.”