Telecom ISPs Ask FCC to Reverse Broadband Privacy Rules

USTelecom has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its broadband privacy framework order. The FCC Democrats voted Oct 27 to require Internet service providers to get their subscribers' permission (notice and choice) before sharing web browsing and app use histories with third parties for marketing and other purposes.

As USTelecom and cable operators argued before the vote, they want the FCC to "harmonize" its approach with that of the FTC. At the moment, it argues, there are at least a couple of discordant notes in the FCC's approach, which it also argues is arbitrary and capricious. First, it says, was the lack of a cost/benefit analysis of the cost of "foreclosing productive uses of information." For example, it says, the cost of requiring an opt-in regime for marketing of all web browsing info, in contrast to the FTC approach to the edge providers privacy it oversees, which allows more "flexibility" for marketing of nonsensitive information—i.e. not opt-in requirement. Second, USTelecom argues, the FCC treats ISPs as "nearly omniscient," with greater visibility into consumer data than others, a premise USTelecom calls false.