Rep Dingell Urges FCC and FTC to Investigate Further Privacy Violations by Cambridge Analytica and other Data Collection Companies

Rep Debbie Dingell (D-MI) continued to urge the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether consumers’ viewing and other personal information was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. Rep Dingell followed-up with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and FTC Commissioner Joseph Simmons to stress the importance of protecting consumers privacy amongst news that Cambridge Analytica improperly collected and shared information from set-top cable boxes. In addition to investigating viewing information, Rep Dingell also urged the FTC to investigate Cambridge Analytica’s overall collection of consumers’ data and if they collected data with the help of other knowing or un-knowing data collectors and platforms.    

In a follow-up letter to the FCC, Rep Dingell stated that Chairman Pai’s response “raises more questions than answers. The FCC has clear authority and a responsibility to protect the viewing data of cable and satellite television subscribers. Your punting this matter to the FTC raises questions as to whether the FCC takes serious its obligation to aggressively and effectively protect consumer privacy.” Rep Dingell also sent a separate letter to FTC Chairman Simmons urging an investigation into whether data collectors improperly collected and shared consumer information with the Cambridge Analytica and noted that, “The FTC should also investigate how Cambridge Analytica collected information about Americans in unscrupulous ways and potentially with the aid of other data collectors. Such an investigation should not be limited to the much-discussed personality-test app but to all of Cambridge Analytica’s and others’ tactics, including whether data on Americans was obtained by smart televisions, set-top boxes, streaming services, or other companies in the television ecosystem and whether that supplied data to Cambridge Analytica committed unfair and deceptive practices in their collection, use, and sharing of that data.”