Data breaches made privacy a mainstream issue and industry's willing to go pretty far in terms of regulatory obligations, giving Congress unprecedented opportunity to pass legislation Brookings Institution's Cameron Kerry told the Multimedia Telecom and Internet Council. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks thinks the Expanding Broadcast Opportunities Act (HR-3957) sponsored by Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., could get bipartisan support, and a similar approach might make sense for other industries such as tech. Butterfield talked up the bill Thursday.
The 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference almost immediately got down to business this week, with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai there. But officials at the WRC, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, said a letter that President Donald Trump sent Monday (see 1910280054) likely raised question. This is considered potentially the most important WRC because of its focus on 5G and harmonizing bands.
The rechartered FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment will focus on improving access of minority and female would-be broadcast owners to capital, addressing digital redlining, and increasing tech-sector diversity, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a recorded video at ACDDE's first meeting in its latest incarnation. Anyone spending time at a tech conference can see “we're not where we need to be in terms of diversity and inclusion in the tech sector,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr.
The FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment will be chaired by Anna Gomez, of Wiley Rein, and working groups will be chaired by Beasley Media CEO Caroline Beasley, Comcast Vice President-Global Public Policy Rudy Brioche, and Brookings Institute Fellow Nicol Turner-Lee, said a public notice on docket 17-208 Thursday. Beasley will head the Access to Capital Working Group, Brioche the Digital Empowerment and Inclusion WG, and Turner Lee the Diversity in the Tech Sector one. The rechartered ACDDE holds its first meeting Wednesday.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr taps Media Bureau’s Ben Arden as acting legal adviser-media issues ... FCC Chairman Ajit Pai designates Anna Gomez, Wiley Rein, to chair rechartered Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment, representing the Hispanic National Bar Association, and Heather Gate, Connected Nation, vice chair ... Scott Patrick, ex-Baker Hostetler, becomes executive director, NTIA Office of Spectrum Management ... Eric Null, New America Open Technology Institute, says he’s becoming Open Access’ U.S. policy manager, effective in mid-November ... Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan leaving government.
CTA applied to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark Sept. 25, the day before introducing it publicly as the linchpin of the industry’s go-to-market strategy for ATSC 3.0 TVs (see 1909260021), said newly posted records at the Patent and Trademark Office. The logo “is intended to certify that the goods to which the mark will be applied have been evaluated to meet certain use and performance standards, namely that the goods are ATSC 3.0 standard compliant,” said the application that Wiley Rein filed on CTA’s behalf. The association will “later provide” a copy of the “standards governing the use of the certification mark on or in connection with the goods/services in the application,” it said. Details remain murky on the performance metrics that would minimally qualify a TV to bear the logo.
Attention is turning to the California attorney general’s rulemaking to implement the California Consumer Privacy Act, after lawmakers made minor CCPA tweaks in their session ended this month (see 1909160045). The law takes effect Jan. 1, but enforcement won’t start until the earlier of July or six months after AG Xavier Becerra (D) issues rules. Neither businesses nor consumer privacy groups got everything they wanted, and will be watching the AG rulemaking closely, they said in interviews last week.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr names Joseph Calascione, Office of Economic Analysis, acting legal adviser-wireline issues, replacing Jamie Susskind (see 1907110069) ... Atlantic Council announces Trey Herr, ex-Microsoft, as director, Cyber Statecraft Initiative ... Access Partnership names Michael Clauser, ex-Analog Devices, global head-data and trust.
FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin doesn’t yet have a long record, but her decisions so far indicate some trends, said Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer in a blog post Monday. Halprin’s taking up of the stalled cases involving Sinclair Broadcast (see 1906270068) and Lake Broadcasting (see 1905310053) demonstrates she doesn’t allow matters to linger, Meltzer said. She also issued “strongly worded” decisions in those cases, indicating she takes issues involving candor seriously, Meltzer said: “As, perhaps, should be expected of someone who served 14 years as Ethics Counsel.” Halprin will preside over a prehearing conference Tuesday for a case on possible issues of candor and radio licensee Entertainment Media Trust (see 1906050063). Halprin’s reaction to the mid-hearing withdrawal of one of the principals in the Lake case also shows her to be “a stickler for process,” Meltzer said. “We may learn a lot more about Judge Halprin based on how she conducts her first hearing as an ALJ, and we will also be looking to see how she handles inter-party disputes, such as carriage complaints.”
The FTC isn’t equipped to handle modern enforcement challenges, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told us, saying there’s a strong case for creating a new data privacy agency. Eshoo and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., are drafting a bill that would create such an agency modeled after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (see 1906250033).