Congress should eliminate the FCC’s data breach notification authority and instead allow the FTC to regulate through a federal privacy law, a privacy-focused telecom association told House Commerce Committee members Wednesday (see 2404160034).
Frontier Communications must spend $20 million over four years to upgrade internet speeds and infrastructure in North Carolina under a settlement with Attorney General Josh Stein (D), the state DOJ said Tuesday. The carrier also will pay $300,000 in restitution for North Carolina customers affected by slower speeds. North Carolina and other states joined the FTC suing Frontier in 2021 over slow speeds. The federal court in that case dismissed the state’s claims against Frontier while allowing the FTC’s case to proceed (see 2110040066). However, North Carolina continued to negotiate with Frontier to reach a settlement, the AG office said. “We’ve been hearing concerns from Frontier customers for years now, and I’m hopeful that these investments will lead to better service,” said Stein. Frontier didn’t comment.
A reshuffle of the House Appropriations Committee’s leadership has shifted Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, to be Financial Services Subcommittee chairman, new panel Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Thursday night. The subcommittee handles federal funding for the FCC and FTC. Former Financial Services lead Steve Womack, R-Ark., now heads the Transportation Subcommittee. Cole took the House Appropriations gavel last week, replacing now-former Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas. Cole said Friday that Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to end advance federal funding for CPB as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069), will remain chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., will continue to chair the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee.
U.S. and European officials should continue sharing enforcement strategies to keep pace with the tech sector and AI-related matters, U.S. and EU competition enforcers said Wednesday. DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter, FTC Chair Lina Khan and European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager met in Washington, D.C., for the fourth session of the U.S.-EU Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue. Khan said in a statement: “As businesses move at breakneck speed to build and monetize AI and algorithmic decision-making tools, engaging with our international partners and sharing best practices will be especially critical.” Kanter said the growth of “data monopolies” and AI’s “rapid expansion” increase competitive threats from “digital gatekeepers.” Vestager said the tech sector raises “global challenges” related to AI and cloud computing: “It is essential to anticipate and address such challenges through close cooperation, leveraging our respective experiences for the benefit of consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) asked state legislators Monday to edit bills approved last month about pole attachments and children’s privacy. In addition, Youngkin signed SB-487 to order a study on public bodies’ use of AI. On the pole attachments measure (HB-800/SB-713), the governor recommended allowing the Virginia State Corporation Commission to extend the bill’s deadline to resolve pole disputes by at most 60 days. The underlying bill requires the commission to resolve pole access disputes, including on allocating rearrangement costs, within 90 days, and all other pole attachment matters within 120 days. On the children’s privacy bill (HB-707/SB-361), the governor recommended an amendment that would add language related to the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). “Controllers and processors that comply with the verifiable parental consent requirements of [COPPA] shall be deemed compliant with any obligation to obtain parental consent under this chapter if a child is under the age of 13,” it said. “For a child 13 years of age or older, controllers and processors shall be deemed compliant with any obligation to obtain parental consent for this chapter if the controller or processor adheres to methods in regulations promulgated by the [FTC] for compliance with obtaining consent from a child's parent or legal guardian in accordance with the federal [COPPA].” Also, Youngkin proposed adding a line saying that controllers may not “process sensitive data concerning a known child 13 years of age or older, without processing such data pursuant to the applicable provisions for children under the age of 13 in accordance with” COPPA.
The House Commerce Committee plans to mark up a bipartisan, bicameral privacy bill this month, Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., announced Sunday in a draft bill agreement with Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
The FTC’s proposal that regulates tactics social media companies use to maximize engagement with young users will draw legal challenges if codified, former agency officials and industry representatives said Tuesday during the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Public Policy and Legal Summit.
The FCC’s administrative hearing process increasingly results in huge discovery requests that can be expensive for entities with matters before the agency’s administrative law judge and faces an uncertain future due to a host of recent administrative law cases, panelists said during a Federal Communications Bar Association virtual event Tuesday. Discovery is the most time-consuming part of the process, said FCC ALJ Jane Halprin. In addition, the expense of pursuing a lengthy case before the ALJ is sometimes more than many licensees can stomach, said Smithwick and Belendiuk attorney Arthur Belendiuk during a separate panel. “Even if you win, you might lose,” he said.
The FTC on Friday denied the videogame industry’s request to use face-scanning technology to determine user ages under child privacy rules, the agency announced. The agency denied the request without prejudice to allow the National Institute of Standards and Technology to examine the proposed age-verification method. The Entertainment Software Rating Board, Yoti and SuperAwesome filed an application in June seeking FTC approval for the age-estimation technology that uses facial geometry (see 2401300018). The group on March 22 requested a stay on the decision to allow NIST time to analyze results. The commission voted 4-0 to deny the request without prejudice, meaning ESRB can refile after NIST completes its work. Newly seated Commissioner Melissa Holyoak (see 2403080038) participated in the unanimous vote. Andrew Ferguson, also recently confirmed, hasn’t taken office yet. ESRB said in a statement Monday it’s “disappointed” the FTC declined to issue a “substantive decision” and delay further an application the agency already twice postponed. “We remain hopeful that facial age estimation and other innovative technologies will be considered COPPA-compliant when used to obtain verifiable parental consent in the near future,” ESRB said, referring to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the statutory basis for the application.
Agencies need technologists, data scientists and other tech experts to properly regulate markets associated with AI, machine learning and augmented reality, the FTC and DOJ said in a joint statement Tuesday with 23 other international enforcement agencies, including the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, the Japan Fair Trade Commission and the Turkish Competition Authority. Increasing “digitization of economies around the world require[s] a greater level of expertise in order to assess the behavior of companies and the ability to weigh potential benefits and risks of technology,” the FTC said.