FCC Broadband Privacy Rule Dead And Buried

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Privacy and Data Security Rule for broadband internet access service (BIAS) providers (the Privacy Rule) is dead. As we discussed here, the new rule that was set to start phased implementation was recently put on hold. We detailed what the Privacy Rule would have required in prior blog posts available here and here.

On Monday night, President Trump signed the Senate Joint Resolution 34, effectively nullifying the Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule was repealed under the Congressional Review Act, which prohibits the FCC from promulgating regulations of similar effect in the future. With this repeal, it is unlikely that anything less than a significantly toned down version of the Privacy Rule will be coming from the FCC anytime soon. This does not mean that the FCC cannot adopt any privacy rules, but any rules adopted would have to be substantially different from the nullified Privacy Rule, and likely would match the Federal