House Commerce Democrats Seek FCC Update on Location Data Probe
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania led a letter with nine other committee Democrats Friday seeking an FCC update by Nov. 29 on its investigation into wireless carriers' location…
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tracking practices, including the sale of customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1805240073). House Commerce Democrats criticized the investigation during a May FCC oversight hearing (see 1905150061). “Despite announcing” the probe more than a year ago, “the FCC has failed, to date, to take any action,” Pallone and the other Democrats wrote Chairman Ajit Pai. “Time is running out since the statute of limitations gives the FCC one year to act.” Also signing were Commerce Vice Chair Yvette Clarke of New York; Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui of California; and Reps. Tony Cardenas, Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney of California; Debbie Dingell of Michigan; Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico; Darren Soto of Florida; and Peter Welch of Vermont. House Commerce “has repeatedly urged you to act quickly to protect consumers’ privacy interests, and unfortunately you have failed to do so,” the lawmakers wrote. “Reports indicate that these carriers have stopped the sharing of real-time location data with data aggregators. This is good news. Nevertheless, we are concerned that the Commission is shirking its obligation to enforce the Communications Act and the rules it has issued to protect consumers’ privacy.” The agency “received” the letter and is “reviewing it,” a spokesperson said.