The Federal Communications Commission passed new rules Thursday that will require telecommunication companies to obtain customer consent before collecting their personal data.
“It’s the consumers’ information,” Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said of the move. “How it is used should be the consumers’ choice. Not the choice of some corporate algorithm.”
The rules passed in a 3-2 vote along party lines, as Republican commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly voted against it because they don’t think it treats all companies equally. “If the FCC truly believes that these new rules are necessary to protect consumer privacy, then the government now must move forward to ensure uniform regulation of all companies in the Internet ecosystem at the new baseline the FCC has set,” Pai said.
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The rules, which will apply to telecom providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, do not apply to so-called “edge providers,” including Facebook or Google. Those companies, which are not classified as utilities, fall outside the FCC’s regulatory jurisdiction. Republicans have argued that cracking down on telecom providers only serves to consolidate the power over data collection exercised by edge providers.
The decision of whether to regulate larger tech companies falls under the purview of the Federal Trade Commission, which has not shown much interest in significantly changing how privacy practices are regulated.
O’Rielly on Thursday said he expects telecom industry to submit “extensive” legal challenges to the new rules.
