Article by
Sam Castic,
Emily Tabatabai,
Aravind Swaminathan and
Antony P. Kim.
This month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will
consider issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for privacy
regulations that will apply to broadband providers. The goals and
objectives of the proposed regulations, which will be offered by
FCC Chairman Wheeler, are outlined in a short document that the FCC released. The
proposed regulations will likely contain strict privacy
requirements that broadband providers have never before been
subject to under federal law.
Telecommunications carriers have
long been subject to privacy requirements under the Communications
Act, including Section 222. Following the FCC's Open Internet Order, Internet access (or
broadband) providers are now deemed to be providing
"telecommunications services", which the FCC warned in an enforcement advisory last year
subjects them to the requirements of Section 222. In what many
