Today:  US House on Facebook Data Sharing, FCC Proceeding Regarding USF Recipients and the Purchase of Certain Equipment/Services, FTC Robocalling Lawsuits 

US House on Facebook Data Sharing

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) issued the following statement on Facebook allowing Chinese technology companies access to data of users and users’ friends without explicit consent.

“At our hearing with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, bipartisan members of the committee asked direct questions about Facebook sharing personal data with third-parties. Clearly, the company’s partnerships with Chinese technology companies and others should have been disclosed before Congress and the American people. The spirit of our questions about third-party access to user data should not have required technical knowledge of the legal agreements Facebook has with device manufacturers to get clear answers for the public. As the committee continues to examine these issues closely with the ongoing audit of Facebook data practices, and awaits response to our written questions from the hearing, we strongly encourage full transparency from Facebook and the entire tech community.”

FCC Proceeding Regarding USF Recipients and the Purchase of Certain Equipment/Services

The FCC has an ongoing proceeding examining whether it should prohibit recipients of Universal Service Fund (USF) support from using that money to purchase or obtain any equipment or services produced or provided by a company posing a national security threat, including certain Chinese companies .  Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 5/8/18.

FTC Robocalling Lawsuits

The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint in federal district court seeking to stop two related operations and their principals who allegedly facilitated billions of illegal robocalls to consumers nationwide, pitching everything from auto warranties to home security systems and supposed debt-relief services.  The FTC charged the defendants with violating the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).  Virtually all telemarketing robocalls to consumers are illegal under the TSR.

According to the FTC, James “Jamie” Christiano and the companies he controls operate “TelWeb,” a computer-based telephone dialing platform that can be used to blast out a large volume of telephone calls - especially robocalls - in a short time.  TelWeb allowed users to make billions of robocalls, including calls to phone numbers on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry and calls with fake, or “spoofed,” caller IDs.  TelWeb also allowed telemarketers to place outbound calls in campaigns designed to leave messages in consumers’ voicemail boxes -- hanging up on people if they answered the phone. 

The FTC alleges that, through TelWeb, consumers were bombarded consumers with more than one billion illegal robocalls annually. This includes hundreds of thousands of illegal calls that resulted in consumers being transferred to a call center operated by the defendants. At least 64 million of these calls used a technique called “neighbor spoofing,” which fakes caller ID and makes it appear that calls are coming from a consumer’s local area.  Based on this alleged conduct, the FTC charged the defendants with (1) assisting and facilitating: illegal robocalls; calls to number on the DNC Registry; calls with spoofed caller IDs; and abandoned calls; and (2) initiating or causing the initiation of: calls with unlawful prerecorded messages; calls to numbers on the DNC Registry; and making calls with spoofed caller IDs.  The FTC is seeking a court order stopping the defendants’ illegal conduct, along with appropriate civil penalties, in which TelWeb hung up on consumers who answered.  

____________________________

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.