Roles of FTC, FCC Are Front and Center in Privacy Debate

The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed privacy rules for Internet service providers have ruffled the feathers in the tech industry since the agency passed the proposal in March. A key question as the agency moves forward to a final rule will be how the FCC’s entrance into privacy rules would interfere (or coexist) with the regime currently enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

The details will come into focus in the coming weeks, as FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to finalize the proposal by the end of 2016. “It’s a turf war. Let’s be honest. It’s a turf war,” said Tim Sparapani, senior policy counsel at CALinnovates, a technology advocacy coalition. “We really need a do-over.” Sparapani was speaking at a privacy briefing Tuesday sponsored by CALinnovates. Just hours earlier in the same building on Capitol Hill, all three commissioners of the FTC testified before the Senate Commerce Committee. They offered a lukewarm endorsement of the FCC’s privacy endeavors. “In our initial bipartisan comment to the FCC, we were very supportive of their proposed rule in this area,” FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny said at the hearing. “We do believe that like the FTC, the FCC shares our goals of transparency, consumer choice, and security and that they have an important role to play in protecting consumer privacy.” Sparapani said the FCC is only confusing matters. “As communications services continue to evolve, and these kinds of companies begin to merge more and more across traditional silos of industry, none of this is going to make any sense,” he said.