Neither Commerce nor AT&T Has PIA Obligation, FirstNet Operator Says
AT&T, not the Commerce Department, will operate FirstNet, and will collect, maintain and transmit personal identifying information over it, so Commerce has no legal obligation to prepare a privacy impact assessment (PIA) and couldn't meaningfully do one. So said AT&T…
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in a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief Thursday (docket 18-2819, in Pacer) backing Commerce. The appeal involves a lower court's dismissal of a Freedom of Information Act suit accusing the agency of improperly denying documents about the FirstNet contract awarded to the carrier (see 1809260014). AT&T said it has no legal obligation to prepare a PIA because it's not an agency nor a party in the case. It said 2002 E-Government Act Section 208, requiring PIAs for new data collection, applies only to agencies and no court has read it as applying to a private entity's collection and dissemination of personal information. The 2nd Circuit Thursday also granted an appellant-plaintiff motion to file a late opposition to AT&T's motion to file the amicus brief. Oral argument is this week.