Pai Seeks Clarity on Broadband Privacy

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated an item for a vote that provides guidance on the broadband privacy rules that were in effect before its 2016 privacy order, apparently. That is opposed to a brand new framework for rules.

That broadband privacy order, adopted last fall by a Democratic majority under former chairman Tom Wheeler and against the dissents of the current Republican majority, was invalidated earlier in 2017 by a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution, essentially with the blessing of Chairman Pai and acting Federal Trade Commission chair Maureen Ohlhausen. The CRA did not roll back FCC authority over internet-service provider broadband privacy, which it has had since the 2015 Open Internet order classified web access as a common-carrier service exempt from FTC oversight. But just what authority the FCC had has been a bit unclear since the agency’s common-carrier privacy regulations are tailored to phone service, stemming from an effort to prevent telcos from using information about who was changing to another carrier to try and incentivize them not to switch. Following that Open Internet order, the FCC had teamed with the FTC on a memorandum of understanding outlining how — in a generally worded document — they could, together, protect broadband privacy going forward.