Today:  FTC Confirms Facebook Investigation, FCC Robocall Rulemaking, FCC Wireless 911 Call Routing  

FTC Confirms Investigation into Facebook Privacy Practices

The Acting Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection, Tom Pahl,  issued a statement regarding reported concerns about Facebook’s privacy practices.  Interestingly, the FTC advised that it has an open non-public investigation into Facebook’s privacy practices. 

“The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers.  Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield, or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act.  Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements.  Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook.  Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.”

 FCC Robocalling Rulemaking

At its Open Meeting last week, the FCC voted to issue a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking aimed at reducing robocalls to reassigned numbers by creating one or more databases that would be available to businesses making telemarketing calls.  Such information would allow them to avoid calling reassigned numbers now belonging to consumers that do not wish to receive such calls.  Among other things, the notice:

• Seeks comment on the information that callers who choose to use a reassigned numbers database need to avoid calling a reassigned number.
• Seeks feedback on three alternative ideas for service providers to report that information: (1) requiring service providers to report reassigned number information to a single, FCC-designated database; (2) requiring service providers to report that information to one or more commercial data aggregators; or (3) allowing service providers to report that information to commercial data aggregators on a voluntary basis.
• Seeks comment on whether and, if so, how the Commission should adopt a safe harbor from liability under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for those callers that choose to use a reassigned numbers database.

FCC Wireless 911 Call Routing

At its Open Meeting last week, the FCC voted to begin an inquiry on how to more quickly route wireless 911 calls to the proper 911 call center.  The Notice of Inquiry seeks comment on the extent of “misrouted” wireless 911 calls and approaches to avoid such delays, including the feasibility of routing 911 calls based on the location of the caller as opposed to the location of the cell tower that handles that call.  Among other questions, the Notice of Inquiry invites comment on how the Commission can facilitate and promote location-based routing improvements.

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s daily 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.