Licensed Customs Broker

Data brokers don’t have a “free license” to sell sensitive location data, FTC Chair Lina Khan said Tuesday, announcing the agency’s first ban on selling location data. The agency announced a nonmonetary settlement with Virginia-based X-Mode Social and Outlogic, its successor. Until May, the company lacked policies "to remove sensitive locations from the raw location data it sold,” the FTC said. X-Mode/Outlogic didn’t “implement reasonable or appropriate safeguards against downstream use of the precise location data it sells, putting consumers’ sensitive personal information at risk,” it added. The commission approved a consent order 3-0 with the company. X-Mode now faces fines of up to $50,120 per violation for future infractions. X-Mode must implement a program with continuous review of its data sets and prevent disclosure of sensitive location data. In addition, it must delete all location data it previously collected. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., applauded the agency for “taking tough action to hold this shady location data broker responsible.” He said that in 2020, he “discovered that the company had sold Americans' location data to U.S. military customers through defense contractors.” The FTC action is “encouraging,” but Congress needs to pass legislation allowing regulators to hold data brokers more accountable, Wyden said. An attorney for X-Mode didn’t comment Tuesday.

T-Mobile and Dish Network executives clashed at a California Public Utilities Commission hearing Monday (see 2109200065) on how long T-Mobile agreed to keep its CDMA network, in the Boost Mobile divestiture agreement brokered with DOJ. The partly virtual hearing on the CPUC’s August order saying the carrier may have misled the agency (see 2108160021) started at 10 a.m. PDT and went overtime, with the lights at the state commission’s headquarters automatically turning off before it ended after 6 p.m. PDT.

The FCC is likely to look to DOJ to tackle Dish Network’s complaint against T-Mobile about the pending shuttering of T-Mobile’s CDMA network, government and industry officials said in recent interviews. In a May 3 letter, groups asked the FCC (see 2105030065) to use Communications Act authority to examine the closing of the network, by year-end. The more likely forum to examine the complaint is at DOJ, though the FCC could scope the shutdown, experts said. The California Public Utilities Commission could also investigate.

Facebook later this month will offer high-profile testimony to Congress, this time on the company’s entry into digital currency markets (see 1906190060). Calibra Head David Marcus is expected before the Senate Banking Committee on July 16 (see 1906190060) and the House Financial Services Committee on July 17.

The FCC will advance broadcasters closer to a new standard by considering a draft NPRM in docket 16-142 on ATSC 3.0 at commissioners’ Feb. 23 meeting, Chairman Ajit Pai announced Thursday. The FCC also will consider a draft order in docket 13-249 that would remove the 40-mile limit on where FM translators can be placed by AM stations. Though both items are still on circulation, Pai released the full text of the items as part of a “pilot program” intended to increase FCC transparency, he said. (see 1702020051).

The FCC proposal to impose stricter privacy rules on ISPs would create an uneven playing field, favoring edge providers like Google and Amazon, doesn't use an economic approach and needlessly would impose heavy security requirements to protect customer information that is essentially public, panelists at a Technology Policy Institute discussion said Monday. But Lisa Hone, FCC associate Wireline Bureau chief, said the FCC NPRM is still just a proposal. The commission expects "vigorous comment," she said. "From a staff perspective, we’re interested in hearing what works and what doesn’t work for customers and ISPs."

LAS VEGAS -- Wi-Fi advocates and the cable industry clashed with carriers (see 1509090046 and 1509080046) over LTE-U, both at CTIA's convention and at the FCC. Carriers and their allies said LTE-U and Wi-Fi can get along, while NCTA expressed alarm. NTIA offered to get involved if needed.

U.S. radio stations face challenges improving their perception amid declines in on-air ads now versus before the Great Recession, and online and other initiatives with potential not fully realized, said some industry insiders we surveyed. They said an ongoing FCC auction of commercial FM-station construction permits points up the economic hardships of running stations in small markets, where many of the CPs are. Increasing competition in markets of all sizes from streaming media and online ad rates lower than stations charge per over-the-air listener are challenges, said executives and analysts. Some were optimistic that, between terrestrial and digital spots, ads will return to pre-recession levels. Others said that won’t happen.

Cox Communications agreed to follow three cable peers and sell AWS spectrum licenses to Verizon Wireless. Also like the carrier is doing with Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable (CD Dec 5 p5), Verizon Wireless and Cox will promote and market each other’s service. The agreements take off the table another chunk of AWS spectrum and come at a per-MHz/POP price that appears lower than what Verizon Wireless agreed to pay the SpectrumCo members for their AWS licenses. Foes of industry consolidation said the deals are beginning to raise competition concerns.

SES Americom is “trying to sneak in the back door” by using license granted by Gibraltar to place DBS satellite at orbital location that wouldn’t be permitted if license were authorized by FCC, DirecTV Pres. Roxanne Austin said. Citing possibility of interference to DBS subscribers, DirecTV and EchoStar filed opposition at FCC to SES application to launch satellite for competitive DBS service(CD April 26 p3). “Our opposition to SES Americom’s FCC petition isn’t about competition -- we welcome the competition -- it’s about interference,” Austin said. Proposed DBS service offered by SES at 105.5 degrees would cause customers to “suffer significant service interruptions and impede our ability to deliver local channels,” she said. DirecTV said SES satellites would be only 4.5 degrees from DirecTV satellites at 101 degrees and 110 degrees, which would violate 9 degrees spacing established by ITU and FCC.