Microsoft Has Issues With FCC Set-Top Proposal

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Executives from Microsoft met with Federal Communications Commission officials recently—including a top advisor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler—armed with some issues related to Chairman Wheeler's set-top box proposal, currently circulated to the commissioners for a vote, including that the company does not want the FCC to apply overbroad privacy certifications to navigation device makers or expand the definition of personally identifiable information (PII).

The company focused on the assertion that "the privacy protections that exist today for consumers of pay-TV providers will be preserved no matter what device is used.” Microsoft said that the FCC needs to clarify that any obligation to apply multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) privacy rules "should apply only to data that is derived exclusively from the MVPD data stream. Overbroad application of the certification requirement would interfere with the collection and use of data to support other legitimate functions of multi-use devices, including operations to maintain the security of the device."


Microsoft Has Issues With FCC Set-Top Proposal