Top Rep Pallone Aide Stumps for Strong FCC Privacy Rules

David Goldman, chief telecom counsel for the House Commerce Committee Democrats, says his boss, Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), is all for harmonizing the Federal Communications Commission's and Federal Trade Commission's online privacy authority, but that means the FCC should proceed with its vote on strong new broadband privacy rules and Congress should give the FTC rulemaking authority so it can impose similarly strong rules on edge provider collection and sharing of data.

Ranking Member Pallone has been pushing the FCC to vote the rules amid ISP pushback and arguments the FCC should either not do so, or put its most recent version out for further comment. That last point was made in a panel session after the speech by TechFreedom President Berin Szóka, who said they were, to a degree "operating in ignorance" when talking about a proposal whose details they have not seen. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler did put out a fact sheet on the changes to his proposal, but did not seek public comment on it.