Public Knowledge

Consumer Privacy Before Congress This Week: What We Learned and What’s Next

The week of Feb 25 featured back-to-back privacy hearings on Capitol Hill to discuss principles for federal privacy legislation. Industry players that have fiercely lobbied against federal privacy legislation in years past are now suddenly calling on Congress to pass a comprehensive privacy bill. Here’s a quick look at what happened in each hearing and a few key takeaways. 

To Make the Tech Sector Competitive, Antitrust Is Only Half the Answer

The goal of antitrust is to preserve competition and free flowing markets, but some industries have no competition to preserve, and instead need regulation to help competition flourish.

Telecom Giants Broke the Law By Selling Detailed Location Data. Will They Face Consequences?

More details have emerged from the Vice investigation into carriers selling their customers’ real-time location data, including assisted GPS (“A-GPS”) data intended only for emergency services. The reports are shocking and illustrate both a brazen disregard for consumer privacy on the part of the companies involved and the disturbing, unregulated behavior of the data brokerage industry.

Advocates Showed During Oral Argument Why Court Must Restore Net Neutrality

On Feb 1, Petitioners (including Public Knowledge) finally got to make their case in court that the Federal Communications Commission’s reckless abdication of responsibility over broadband was illegal. To highlight some of them: