AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision Violate Privacy, Say Complaints to FCC, FTC
AT&T, Cablevision and Comcast are violating consumer privacy through their “opt-out” data collection, said Public Knowledge and several other public interest groups in complaints filed with the FCC and FTC Thursday. Despite federal law and FCC regulations that emphasize “the importance of giving consumers control over how their information is being used,” pay-TV carriers have “continued to use large amounts of their customers’ data without properly obtaining customer consent or informing subscribers of the extent of the use of their information,” said the complaints filed by PK, the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federation of America and The Utility Reform Network. “There isn't anything worse that can happen to a person's data than what the cable industry is doing with it right now,” said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld in an interview. AT&T disagreed.
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The complaints are intended to draw attention to pay-TV's “hypocrisy” in FCC proceedings on set-top boxes and broadband privacy, Feld said. By challenging proposed FCC privacy enforcement in the latter proceeding while trumpeting the strict rules they're bound by in the former, multichannel video programming distributors are trying to have it both ways, Feld said. AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs Jim Cicconi and MVPD industry officials characterized the privacy complaints as a reaction to effective attacks on the privacy aspects of the PK-supported FCC set-top proceeding.
“This complaint is bogus, and seems mainly designed to distract the public from the overwhelming bipartisan opposition to the FCC’s controversial set-top box plan,” said Cicconi on AT&T's blog. The FCC proposal “will erode existing consumer privacy protections, not to mention its many other harms," Cicconi said. “Because the plan’s few remaining supporters have no answer to that charge, they’ve decided to invent a false privacy claim.”
Comcast deems the petition "off base," and it's "misleading on both the facts and the law, and is little more than an attempt to divert attention from a set of flawed proposals that the FCC has put forward on set-top boxes and broadband privacy," emailed a spokeswoman. "All our privacy practices are fully consistent with the law." Cablevision and NCTA didn't comment.
AT&T, Cablevision and Comcast are the “most egregious” violators of privacy rules that require MVPDs to get written consent from subscribers prior to collecting and using their data for advertising, the complaint submitted to the FCC said. Since MPVDs use “opt-out” consent for using customer data, they by definition aren't getting prior consent, the complaint said. The MVPD opt-out policies also don't adequately inform consumers how their data will be used, which violates disclosure laws, the FCC complaint said. “Privacy policies do not inform consumers of the extent to which their information is being shared and combined with other data to target advertising on an individual level.” The FCC should determine that “opt-out” privacy policies violate rules, the complaint said.
In the FTC complaint, the public interest groups argue that by using the data and not properly disclosing they're doing so, the MVPDs are engaging in “deceptive practice” and violating FTC rules. “AT&T’s use of anonymous and aggregate set-top box information is entirely consistent with the statute,” said Cicconi. The FTC complaint asks the agency to investigate MVPD data collection.
"Pressing for an opt-in regime is counter to what consumers have come to expect and be comfortable with,” said Adonis Hoffman, chairman of Business in the Public Interest and a former aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Some of Business in the Public Interest's supporters may have an interest in the set-top and privacy proceedings, Hoffman said. "It is commercially unreasonable and unworkable to require businesses to move to opt-in.” Several MVPD industry officials said the privacy complaints show that PK believes it's losing the privacy battle in the set-top proceeding. Third-party set-top makers should have to follow the same rules PK is asking the federal agencies to enforce in the complaints, Feld said. Third-party box makers aren't violating data collection rules because such box makers largely don't exist, Feld said.