Senate Commerce Committee Holding FTC Oversight Hearing

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a Federal Trade Commission oversight hearing.

The office of committee chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) announced that the hearing will be Sept. 27 at 10 a.m.

Look for broadband privacy to be a hot topic of conversation. Committee Republicans have been pushing the FCC to take a page from the FTC's privacy oversight and focus on tailoring broadband privacy to the sensitivity of information and to an opt out, rather than opt in, regime for information sharing, which has been the FTC's approach.

Related: Court Decision Raises Edge Provider Regulation Issues

Just last week, the major ISPs called on the committee to drill down on the FCC proposal.

The FCC inherited oversight of broadband privacy from the FTC when it reclassified ISPs as common carriers, which the FTC is excluded from regulating under the false and deceptive authority the FTC used.

There could also be questions about the recent court decision that called into question whether buying a common carrier could insulate edge providers from FTC privacy regulatory authority.

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.