Today: Canada Will Require Emergency Alert Messages on Mobile Devices, FCC Files for OMB Approval of Transparency Rule, Missouri Opens Facebook Data Breach Investigation
Canada Will Require Emergency Alert Messages on Mobile Devices
Starting on April 6, 2018, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will require all wireless service providers to distribute wireless public emergency alert messages on their long-term evolution (LTE) networks. Wireless emergency alerts will inform Canadians about imminent dangers to life and property. The alerts, which can be targeted to a specific area, will be sent to mobile devices connected to LTE networks. The CRTC believes this will enhance the emergency alerts that Canadians already receive via their radios and televisions. For more information visit https://www.alertready.ca.
FCC Files for OMB Approval of Transparency Rule
The FCC has begun the process of obtaining Office of Management and Budget approval for its new Internet Freedom/Open Internet transparency rule. Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefings dated 12/13/18. Comments to OMB and the FCC are due on April 27, 2018. Comments can address: (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the Commission’s burden estimate; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (3) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (4) ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. The FCC estimated that there will be 1,919 respondents to the data collection; that the estimated time per response is 26 hours; and that that total annual burden of the rule will be 49,894 hours and cost will be $560,000. As a reminder, the rule will not become effective until OMB completes its Paperwork Reduction Act review and the FCC publishes notice of the approval and an effective date in the Federal Register. This is expected to take several months.
Missouri Opens Facebook Data Breach Investigation
The Attorney General of Missouri, Josh Hawley, has issued a press release announcing that his office issued an investigative subpoena to Facebook regarding the company’s sharing and tracking of consumers’ data. The investigation is in response to Facebook's recent announcement that Cambridge Analytica, data analytics firm, collected the personal information of about 50 million Facebook users without their consent.
Additionally, several other state Attorneys General, led by the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, signed on to a letter requesting Facebook to answer about its data breach issues.
“Businesses like Facebook must comply with the law when it comes to how they use their customers’ personal data,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “State Attorneys General have an important role to play in holding them accountable and I’m proud to partner with so many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle in this effort.”
The letter to Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, initiated by Attorney General Shapiro and joined by a bipartisan coalition of Attorneys General, raises a series of questions about the social networking site’s policies and practices, including:
- Were those terms of service clear and understandable?
- How did Facebook monitor what these developers did with all the data that they collected?
- What type of controls did Facebook have over the data given to developers?
- Did Facebook have protective safeguards in place, including audits, to ensure developers were not misusing the Facebook user’s data?
- How many users in the states of the signatory Attorneys General were impacted?
- When did Facebook learn of this breach of privacy protections?
- During this time frame, what other third party “research” applications were also able to access the data of unsuspecting Facebook users?
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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.
