Today's Regulatory Mix:  Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Introduce Consumer Data Privacy Legislation, The SAFE DATA Act, FTC to Hold Workshop on Privacy, FCC Releases Internet Access Services Report

Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Introduce Consumer Data Privacy Legislation

U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, Deb. Fischer, R-Neb., chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the Setting an American Framework to Ensure Data Access, Transparency, and Accountability (SAFE DATA) Act.

The legislation would provide Americans with more choice and control over their data and direct businesses to be more transparent and accountable for their data practices.  The bill would also enhance the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) authority and provide additional resources to enforce the Act.

“As COVID-19 increases activity online and opportunities to misuse personal data continue to surge, it is time to pass a uniform, national privacy law,” said Wicker.  “More than ever, we need to stop bad actors and restore consumers’ trust in the internet marketplace.  Today I am introducing a bill that would provide all Americans with baseline protections and more transparency, choice, and control over their data. It would also strengthen the FTC’s ability to hold businesses accountable when using data for nefarious purposes.  I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation so that we can instill confidence in consumers and in the long-term sustainability of our digital economy.” 

The SAFE DATA Act would: 

Provide Americans with more choice and control over their data by:

• Requiring businesses to allow consumers to access, correct, delete, or port their data; 
• Prohibiting businesses from processing or transferring consumers’ sensitive data without their consent; 
• Prohibiting businesses from denying consumers products or services for exercising their privacy rights; 
• Minimizing the amount of consumer data businesses can collect, process, and retain; 
• Limiting secondary uses of consumer data without their consent; 
• Establishing uniform data protections across the country enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general;

Direct businesses to be more transparent and accountable for their data practices by: 

• Requiring businesses to disclose a privacy policy to consumers detailing their data collection, processing, and transfer activities, and notify consumers of any material changes to those activities;
• Requiring businesses to conduct privacy impact assessments of data processing activities that may present a heightened risk of harm to consumers; 
• Requiring businesses to secure consumers’ data and maintain internal controls and reporting structures to assess data privacy risks to consumers; and
• Requiring online platforms to be transparent about their use of secret algorithms.

Strengthen the FTC’s ability to respond to potentially harmful changes in technology and hold businesses accountable for misusing consumers’ data by: 

• Authorizing the FTC to develop new rules to expand categories of sensitive data;
• Requiring the FTC to share any information with the appropriate Executive or State agency if it obtains information that a business has processed or transferred consumer data in a way that violates Federal anti-discrimination laws; 
• Requiring the FTC to maintain a data broker registry; 
• Expanding the FTC’s authority to oversee the data use practices of common carriers and nonprofit organizations; and
• Restoring the FTC’s authority to obtain monetary remedies for consumers. 
  

FTC to Hold Workshop on Privacy

The Federal Trade Commission announced will host a workshop that will examine the potential benefits and challenges to consumers, privacy, and competition raised by data portability, which is the ability of consumers to move data from one service to another or to themselves. The online workshop will be held on September 22, 2020, 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. ET.  The event will feature remarks by FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith and FTC Bureau of Competition Director Ian Conner, as well as panel discussions featuring academics, government officials, industry representatives, and consumer advocates.  The workshop will be held online. A link to view the workshop will be posted the morning of the event to the event page and ftc.gov

FCC Releases Internet Access Services Report

The FCC has issued a report on the status of Internet access services as of December 31, 2018.  The report summarizes information about Internet access connections in the United States as collected by FCC Form 477.  For purposes of the report, Internet access connections are those in service, over 200 kbps in at least one direction, and reported to the FCC.

The report includes data on total and residential Internet access connections by downstream and upstream speed, by technology, by geography, and over time.  Section 2 of the report presents nationwide statistics, Section 3 provides state-level data, and Section 4 includes data on the subscribership differences among counties and census tracts.  In addition, Section 5 of the report includes an analysis of the correlations between subscribership ratios and various demographic measures.  Maps depicting the number of fixed connections per 1,000 households by census tract are available online.

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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.

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