The FCC today, under new Chairman Ajit Pai, said it will stay the ISP customer privacy rules approved in October and set to go into effect today.
“We still believe that jurisdiction over broadband providers’ privacy and data security practices should be returned to the FTC, the nation’s expert agency with respect to these important subjects. All actors in the online space should be subject to the same rules, enforced by the same agency,” Pai said in a joint statement with Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen.
Pai said the two agencies “will work together on harmonizing the FCC’s privacy rules for broadband providers with the FTC’s standards for other companies in the digital economy.
“This rule is not consistent with the FTC’s privacy framework,” Pai said. “It does not serve consumers’ interests to create two distinct frameworks—one for Internet service providers and one for all other online companies.”
He shot down the idea that his move will make internet users unsafe since the rules were “not yet in effect.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, however, says the move simply “granted the telecom industry its wish.”
