Wheeler Launches Broadband Privacy Discussion

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler called the broadband privacy workshop the commission hosted Tuesday the beginning of a very important discussion.

The FCC is trying to decide how to regulate broadband CPNI (customer proprietary network information), now that it has reclassified ISPs as telecoms out of the reach of the Federal Trade Commission, which is now prevented from exercising authority given common carrier exemption.

Wheeler said that the issue falls under a broader one, which is the basic concept that "changes in technology don't change our values."

He said that privacy is unassailable and how the FCC deals with it is what makes the issue and the era so challenging, but exciting at the same time.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.