Broadband Privacy Docket Fills Up With Comments

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has made major progress in filling up the broadband privacy docket with a backlog of comments.

At press time, the number of posted comments had reached 2,016, up dramatically from last week’s 300 or so.

FCC spokesperson Kim Hart had told Multichannel News the agency was making progress as it worked through a backlog of comments across all dockets, partly due to a flood of input on the set-top and broadband privacy proposals, and partly because of an electronic comment filing system that translates all documents into PDF files before they are registered, a system that is currently being updated.

Advocacy group Protect Internet Freedom (PIF) had complained about some 2,200 broadband privacy comments that had not made it into the public record, though Hart has said that was due to a communications problem with the PIF online template.

The comments are trending toward opposition to the proposal, with particular focus on Google as the beneficiary, a common theme sounded about the set-top proposal as well.

The FCC is proposing requiring an opt-out regime for multichannel video programming distributor sharing of customer online informations with third parties. Edge providers are not subject to a similar regime for tracking and sharing user data for targeted marketing purposes.

PIF said last week that the backlog was reason for extending the comment period for the proposal.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.