On April 17, 2017, Federal Trade Commissioner Terrell McSweeny spoke at an event in Washington, D.C., hosted by New America’s Open Technology Institute about broadband privacy issues in the wake of the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) broadband privacy rules. Commissioner McSweeny, a Democrat, criticized the repeal of the FCC rules and expressed concern about the attendant impact on online privacy. A copy of Commissioner McSweeny’s remarks is available here.
Commissioner McSweeny noted that “Americans understand and value a free and open Internet—81% support the concept of Internet nondiscrimination and 60% oppose the idea of paid fast lines for data.” She said Americans expect their data to be protected and that “91% of Americans want more control over their data, not less.” Commissioner McSweeny then addressed the rollback of the FCC rules, stating that there has been a “rapid implementation of a ‘no cops on the beat’ approach to privacy and data security in which control over who gets our sensitive information rests in the hands of a few very large companies that are the gatekeepers for our connections to modern life.” She further noted that “[w]e cannot count on the marketplace or competition to deliver us better options because our broadband markets are highly concentrated.”
Commissioner McSweeny said the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or the “Agency”) is hamstrung on the issue because it does not have jurisdiction over data security matters involving wireless, cable, and broadband carriers. However, she discussed the FTC’s work in the data security space overall, stating that the Agency’s “efforts have focused on holding companies accountable for the promises they make about the information they use and collect” and that the FTC “has consistently focused on transparency, consumer choice, and security.” She noted that the FTC “supports use of opt-in consent for the collection and sharing of sensitive information including content of communications; social security numbers; health, financial, and children’s information; and precise geolocation data.”
The most effective regulatory approach, per Commissioner McSweeny, is for the FTC to partner with other regulators across the government to work on industry-specific rules, which is “why the FTC worked with the FCC on its broadband privacy rule—and it is what the FTC is now doing … with [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] on connected cars.” She emphasized that “[p]rivacy and security considerations are too important to be partitioned from core design and regulatory decisions.”
Commissioner McSweeny concluded by stating that in highly concentrated markets such as broadband, “we need all the public policy tools at our disposal—regardless of which agency they reside in—to safeguard an open and nondiscriminatory Internet.”
