Parties Divided Over FCC Involvement in Mobile Privacy

In their comments, public interest groups and privacy advocates generally called for the FCC to ramp up its efforts, with some seeking new mobile regulations focused on wireless carrier activity. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, for example, suggested that the FCC require carriers to implement “comprehensive privacy and security protections based on Fair Information Practices” and “give consumers a range of choices about the collection and retention of consumer data before or at the time of collection.”  Industry commenters, on the other hand, encouraged the FCC to defer to current self-regulatory efforts, as well as the ongoing NTIA multistakeholder process. They also pointed out the FCC’s limited jurisdiction in this area and its inability to address comprehensively problems involving a wide range of parties in the mobile wireless ecosystem.  The Future of Privacy Forum, which has actively worked to focus attention on the data collection issues raised by mobile apps and other mobile services, encouraged the FCC to work with stakeholders and help educate consumers and app developers about the importance of protecting personal information.

The Federal Trade Commission also commented in the proceeding, detailing its privacy experience and noting that it “look[ed] forward to working with the FCC to ensure that [they] avoid duplicative actions in areas where . . . jurisdictions may be overlapping.”

Reply comments are due on Monday, July 30.

Authored by Mark Brennan.