Remarks of Commissioner O'Rielly on Protecting Consumer Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Internet Era

The Federal Communications Commission recently adopted rules that impose new burdens on supposed “rogue” Internet Service Providers under the guise of protecting consumer privacy. The three-to-two vote fell along party lines, placing me in the non-winning camp once again. While the text of the item is not available at the moment – a flaw in the Commission procedures – I am free to express my thoughts and views on the item and the topic as a whole.

From my perspective, the biggest substantive areas of concern are (1) the ill-conceived definition of sensitive information, which includes web browsing history and application usage and thus requires consumer opt-in mechanisms; (2) the unreasonable limitations on first-party marketing; and (3) the effective establishment of a new Commission regime to review consumer privacy trades.


Remarks of Commissioner O'Rielly on Protecting Consumer Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Internet Era