Today's Regulatory Mix: Congress Urges Action on Interim Privacy Shield, FCC’s Stark Seeks Details On “Bidstream” Consumer Data
Congress Urges Action on Interim Privacy Shield
The four bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee sent a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Joseph Simons urging them to work with their European counterparts to quickly issue interim guidance to protect consumers and help businesses following the recent decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that overturned the European Union (EU)-United States (U.S.) Privacy Shield Framework. The letter was signed by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
On July 16, the ECJ invalidated the Privacy Shield, which had allowed the transfer of data from the EU to the U.S. in compliance with EU law since 2016.
“In the wake of this decision, thousands of American businesses that relied on the Privacy Shield are left with few options for the processing of data from the EU,” the four bipartisan committee leaders wrote. “This decision may significantly disrupt their operations and the consumers who rely upon their services.” The leaders noted that the Privacy Shield had been particularly important for small and medium-sized businesses who need a framework for protecting consumer data while engaging with customers in the EU.
“Avoiding unnecessary disruptions to the businesses affected by the ECJ decision and the consumers they serve is critical,” Pallone, Walden, Wicker and Cantwell continued in their letter to Ross and Simons. “Accordingly, we encourage you to work closely and expeditiously with your European counterparts to issue interim guidance to make sure that consumer and business services are not unduly disrupted, and personal data is protected.”
F
CC’s Starks Seeks Details On “Bidstream” Consumer Data
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks' announced he has sent letters to AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications inquiring about the aggregation and monetization of sensitive consumer data that is generated for advertising placement purposes. The letters seek details about AT&T and Verizon’s participation in real-time bidding exchanges for mobile advertising, including through the advertising technology companies they have acquired in recent years. The letters also request details on each provider’s policies and procedures to prohibit or minimize tracking of Americans to protests, including the Black Lives Matter protests, and other sensitive locations, including places of worship and medical providers.
Specifically, the letters ask the companies to:
- Explain their participation in monetizing or using customer data intended for advertising placement to advance non-advertising objectives, including location tracking.
- Quantify the amount of U.S. location data distributed in real-time bidding processes.
- Detail policies in place to minimize, destroy, or prohibit the tracking of American’s according to customer data, including specifically with relation to the Black Lives Matter protests.
- Identify any authentication measures in place to ensure that “bidstream” data is not being inventoried, aggregated, or siphoned by entities.
- Explain how the practices identified in the letter and news reports are not the functional equivalent of practices AT&T and Verizon told the Commission they had discontinued.
Last week, several members of Congress sent a letter to the FTC requesting that it open an investigation into these practices.
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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.
