Lawrence J. Spiwak writes that developments in the past year have resulted in consumers being farther away from good privacy protection:
Our story begins with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) controversial decision to reclassify broadband Internet access as a Title II common carrier telecommunications service in its 2015 Open Internet Order
With reclassification, two related legal effects were triggered.
First, reclassification stripped the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — the agency that traditionally has jurisdiction over digital privacy concerns for the entire internet ecosystem — from bringing a privacy enforcement action against broadband service providers because the FTC has no jurisdiction over common carriers.
Second, with reclassification, all broadband service providers — whether wireline, cable or wireless — became subject to the Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) statutory framework contained in Section 222 of the Communications Act.
Read more on his commentary on The Hill.