The House Energy & Commerce Committee Republican leaders are applauding the decision by France to phase Chinese telecom Huawei out of its networks. 

That follows the decision by the UK a couple of weeks ago to do the same. The U.S. has been working on scrubbing Huawei out of its networks as a national security threat and has been urging others to do the same.  

Related: UK Bans Huawei from 5G Network

“The decision by France to phase out Huawei from its networks is welcome news," they said. "We look forward to working with our allies on our other shared security goals." 

The "they" are E&C ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.), Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta (R-Ohio), Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). 

 Related: FCC Continues Crackdown on Suspect Tech 

“China will do whatever it takes to dominate the world’s economy and suppress human rights," they said in a joint statement. "Freedom-loving nations must work together to protect our communications networks from foreign infiltration, secure our supply chains, and ensure leadership in emerging and wireless technologies. We are committed to working with our allies who share our values and interests to demonstrate to our adversaries that there will be consequences for intellectual property theft and other bad behaviors." 

Last month, the FCC officially designated Huawei a national security threat and said no carrier can get Universal Service Fund broadband buildout money if it uses Huawei tech. 

Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) have big issues with video creation/sharing app TikTok and suggested it was time for some answers.  

In a letter to Yiming Zhang, CEO of TikTok parent ByteDance, dated Thursday (May 21), they shared their privacy concerns, specifically about possible violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 

They are worried that TikTok's collection of data is being shared with the Chinese Communist Party. They also want some answers on the company's governance and issues related to the COVID-19 crisis and the shelter-at-home weary populace turning to apps like TikTok for connection. 

Disney's Mayer Named TikTok Chief Executive 

“We are living through an unprecedented time due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. As a result of this pandemic, millions of our citizens, through no fault of their own, have no choice but to stay home," they wrote. "In doing so, they rely on the Internet to connect them to families, friends, and vital services. As a result, mobile application downloads have increased dramatically, especially TikTok. In fact, there has been a spike in both unique users and time spent on TikTok in recent months. Congress has significant concerns over TikTok’s data practices, including whether TikTok continues to violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and whether TikTok shares American user’s information with the Chinese Communist Party." 

They have almost two dozen questions they want answered, including how the company verifies parental consent for children to use the app, and how data is collected and used, and why.  

Related: FCC Exacts Record Settlement

They anticipated TikTok's "prompt attention" to the responses. 

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Center for Digital Democracy are among a coalition of 20 groups that have filed a complaint at the Federal Trade Commission against TikTok, saying it is not adhering to its February 2019 settlement with the FTC.  

The video social networking app TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle the FTC allegation that it had illegally collected personal info from kids. In addition to the settlement, TikTok "agreed to change their practices to ensure COPPA compliance," the FTC said at the time. It was the largest civil penalty ever levied over an alleged children's privacy violation. 

Related: Bill Would Ban TikTok From All Government Devices

The groups said that the maker of the Chinese-backed short-form app has not deleted previously collected data from children and is still collecting personal info without the consent of their parents.  

FCC chairman Ajit Pai is naming Paul Jackson to head up the FCC's office of legislative affairs, which, as the name suggests, deals with the FCC's interactions with Congress, including prepping witnesses for hearings, responding to congressional inquiries and keeping Congress in the loop on FCC decisions and policy issues. 

Jackson, who had been associate chief of the FCC's Media Bureau, will replace Tim Strachan, who will continue at the FCC in the Office of General Counsel. 

Before joining the FCC last year, Jackson had worked on the Hill, both Senate and House sides, most recently at the House Energy & Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection .

“Our two-way communications with Congress are essential to succeeding in our mission for the American people,” said Pai of the new posting for Jackson. “The FCC takes very seriously not only Congress’s input on our work, but our responsibility to keep them informed about our efforts and to provide expert advice when asked to do so. Paul’s deep policy experience at the FCC and on Capitol Hill is a great asset. I thank him for his willingness to take on this important task and to serve as our point person in working with Congress.” 

The FCC has gotten some bipartisan blowback from the Hill recently over not being kept sufficiently in the loop.  

At an FCC oversight hearing in December, House Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) signaled that what the communications regulatory agency had was a failure to communicate.  

Walden did not appear happy that he had to learn from a press release that the FCC was establishing a new $9 billion 5G rural subsidy fund, including a billion dollars for precision agriculture. He said it sounded good, but he had a lot of questions, including where the $9 billion is coming from and about the fact that there are still not accurate maps to show where broadband is and isn't.  

"We expect to have a little more notice and a little more communication on some of these big announcements," he said, adding that might have addressed some of the questions the FCC would be getting at the hearing.  

While Democrats were slamming carriers for sharing their geolocation data with third parties, including "bounty hunters" and "stalkers," ranking Republican House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) turned the issue to another knock on edge providers.

That was in a Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight hearing Wednesday, May 15. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has long said the FCC was investigating the issue, but would not talk about it when pressed by Democrats, pointing out that he does not talk about ongoing investigations.

Related: Pai Tells Hill That FCC Is Not Delaying Geolocation Data

A frustrated Rep. Mike Doyle channeled the late Rep. John Dingell peppering Pai with questions seeking yes or no answers--had carriers stopped sharing location data; whether he had tolled the one-year statute of limitations since it have been over a year. Pai gave neither (though he did say he was "mindful of the relevant statute of limitations"); whether law enforcement agents or members of Congress had had their locations tracked Doyle said that was wholly insufficient and suggested the chairman was "sitting on his hands.

Rep. Anna Eshoo was equally unhappy, pressing Pai on complaints from Democratic commissioners that they could not get info about the status of the investigation either.

Pai did point out that he had offered to let Democrat Geoffrey Starkes oversee the Enforcement Bureau investigation--Starkes said he had turned it down when he was unsatisfied with a briefing he had gotten on the investigation.

But when Walden took the floor, he moved the issue from carriers to content providers pointing out in the process that some geolocation data was consumer-friendly and even life-saving, like emergency roadside assistance.

He he shared his Democratic colleagues concern about unauthorized use of consumers' geolocation data. But in a series of questions to a clearly friendly witness (Pai), Walden expanded his concerns. He pointed out that aggregators had been selling data for unauthorized purposes without permission from the carrier or consumer.

He said he understood the FCC's Enforcement Bureau was taking a "deeper dive" into the issue, but that many carriers had already cut off the programs, so they were turning to "the location data collected by tech company's operating systems and apps that were constantly tracking users." He said in many cases that data was even more "pervasive and precise."

He said his concern was that the market for location data was shifting to that relatively unregulated edge.

He asked Pai if the FCC could regulate those aggregators. Pai said no, saying that would typically fall to the Federal Trade Commission. Walden asked if the FCC could look into sharing geolocation data by operating systems and apps. Pai said no, "we don't have jurisdiction over some of the tech giants that have collected that information."

As the former chairman of the Communications Subcommittee and thus a veteran of proceedings where former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler emphasized that the commission lacked authority over edge practices, Walden was likely confident of those answers. 

Federal Trade Commission chair Joseph Simons told Congress that he does not want Congress to give his agency broad rulemaking authority.

Simons was testifying at a House Energy & Commerce Committee Consumer Protection Subcommittee FTC oversight hearing.

He has said the FTC needs more rulemaking authority, but also said that should be targeted authority to implement federal privacy legislation currently being considered by Congress.

"Please do not do it. Do not give us broad rulemaking authority. Give us targeted rulemaking authority," he said when asked by full committee ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) to clarify what authority he was looking for.

Simons told the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee last fall that the Federal Trade Commission needs three things to better protect consumer privacy, 1) rulemaking authority; 2) civil penalty authority—currently it can only try and make consumers whole for losses, not penalize the conduct responsible; and 3) jurisdiction over nonprofits and common carriers.

The FTC once had more rulemaking authority but Congress pulled that back after the agency became politicized, Walden pointed out. Simons said he was similarly concerned with the politicization of the commission.

Related: Privacy Groups Propose New Government Data Protection Agency

Simons said what he wanted was for Congress to come up with bipartisan privacy legislation, define it "fairly well"--perhaps looking at the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act as a model, and "give us targeted rulemaking authority so we can keep it up to date and make technical changes for developments in technology or in business methods."

He said the last thing they wanted was to dump the "big, broad question" on us, which he said was better the province of elected officials.

Walden said that too often, Congress will put the onus on agencies when it can't figure something out, then Congress complains when it doesn't agree with the agency. Walden agreed that it should be on Congress' shoulders to provide as "defined and targeted" authority as possible.

FTC's Simons: We Are Cop on Privacy Beat

The FTC is under pressure from Capitol Hill to enforce consent decrees with edge providers and to look hard at whether the size of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple and Twitter--have antitrust implications the FTC may have missed in the rise of those companies from scrappy garage startups to companies trying to mine the world's data and with market caps on par with the GDP (rather than GDPR) of some countries.

The bipartisan leadership of the House Energy & Commerce Committee want some answers from Google CEO Sundar Pichai on reports that the company maintains a database of location information on hundreds of millions of people.

Related: Buttigieg Says Big Tech May Need Breaking Up

They have written Pichai asking for a briefing on the so-called "Sensorvault."

Signing on to the letter are Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), chairman of the committee; Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), ranking member; Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), chair of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee; and Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.), ranking member of the subcommittee.

They didn't hammer Google over the database. Instead, they pointed to the potential ramifications for privacy of such a database, particularly if it is shared with third parties and, as the New York Times reported, the data is collected even when people are not making calls or surfing the web, and is never deleted.

According to the New York Times, Google has information on almost everyone with an Android device, some of it back a decade.

They want answers to the following questions by May 7.

1. "What information does Google store in the Sensorvault database and for what purposes does Google use this information?
2. "Does Google maintain other databases of precise location information?
3. "Who is able to access the information in the Sensorvault database?
4. "How accurate is the precise location information stored in the Sensorvault database?
5. "What controls, if any, does Google provide to consumers to limit or revoke Google’s access to the information stored in the Sensorvault database?
6. "What is Google’s retention policy with respect to precise location information stored in the Sensorvault database? Does Google share, sell, license or otherwise disclose precise location information (including deidentified data) from the 6. "Sensorvault database with any third parties other than law enforcement?
7. "Does Google share, sell, license, or otherwise disclose precise location information (including deidentified data) from the Sensorvault database with any third parties other than law enforcement?"

WASHINGTON — Congratulations continued to flow in Friday (Dec. 2) for the election of Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) Friday to be the new chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce  Committee.

Walden has been chair of the Communications Subcommittee. His successor to that post won't be picked until January, he signaled this week. He was tapped by the steering committee for the post on Thursday evening (Dec. 1), with the Republican conference following suit Friday.

"Chairman Walden is a thoughtful policymaker with extensive experience and deep knowledge of issues surrounding telecommunications, technology and other important sectors of the U.S. economy," Michael Powell, president and CEO of NCTA: The Internet & Television Association, said. “We look forward to working Chairman Walden and the full Committee on a productive agenda that encourages private capital investment, supports ongoing innovation and promotes the growth of our national economy.” 

Steven J. Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association, said: “The House Energy & Commerce Committee plays a key role in helping ensure competitive carriers are able to compete and thrive in the industry, and chairman Walden understands the importance of mobile broadband, especially in rural areas.” Walden represents a largely rural district.

"His understanding of the Universal Service Fund [broadband subsidy program] and role in crafting the legislation leading to the 600 MHz [broadcast] incentive auction will be an asset to the Committee and to Congress. With many important policy issues in play, it no doubt will be a busy 115th Congress, and I look forward to our continued work on these issues and more, and again congratulate Rep. Walden on the chairmanship.”

USTelecom president Walter McCormick said: “We congratulate Congressman Walden on being selected as the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His vast experience and understanding of issues to come before the committee, including telecommunications and technology policies, will be a tremendous asset for the committee. USTelecom looks forward to working with him to promote policies that will encourage investment, innovation and expansion of broadband access to all Americans.”

Verizon Communications senior vice president Kathy Grillo said: “Over the years, Chairman Walden has been an engaged and consistent leader in the telecommunications and technology sectors. We believe his vast experience, strong work ethic and proactive agenda will be a true asset as our sector continues to be a driving force in innovation and economic opportunity.”

“We were pleased to present Congressman Walden with our Champion of Public Broadcasting award in 2013, and we are grateful for his continuing support of our public service missions of education, public safety and civic leadership," said America's Public Television Stations president Patrick Butler. "Chairman Walden has been a voice of reason on telecommunications issues for many years, and we are delighted that he will now hold the gavel for one of the most influential committees of the Congress.

“In addition, Congressman Walden is universally regarded as one of the finest legislators in Washington," Butler said.