FCC Announces Broadband Consumer Privacy Workshop – April 28

Commission makes good on Chairman Wheeler’s promise following adoption of new Net Neutrality rules

The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that will hold a public workshop on April 28, exploring the FCC’s role protecting consumer privacy in relation to broadband Internet services. The FCC stated that the event will give stakeholders the opportunity to consider a broad range of issues concerning how statutory privacy protections apply to broadband Internet access service. The FCC’s announcement follows Chairman Tom Wheeler’s previous promise to hold a consumer privacy workshop following the FCC’s adoption of new Net Neutrality rules in February, and his statement that the Commission “didn’t just fall off the turnip truck” regarding consumer privacy efforts. While the workshop’s agenda has not yet been released, determining how privacy provisions that have historically applied to telephone service (i.e. “CPNI” provisions) will now translate to broadband Internet service and the limits of the Commission’s authority in this newly asserted territory are likely to be dominant topics of conversation for the workshop’s participants.

For our detailed advisory analyzing the privacy impacts of the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules, please click here.