FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz at The Cable Show 2011 Public Policy Lunch
FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz and FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn sat down at the Public Policy lunch with NCTA's James Assey to discuss the regulatory challenges facing cable and the challenge of getting America connected. Clyburn stated that her passion for getting people online, and connecting them with services that can enhance their personal value drives her policy decisions. Assey asked Leibowitz about the possibility of giving users who consume less bandwidth a lower price for packages and charging heavy users more. Leibowitz said he was surprised that tiered packages weren't more widely used since almost every other product is paid on a volume basis. He went on to say that the key is disclosure to consumers of what they can expect from those tiers. As discussion turned to online ad targeting and privacy, Leibowitz noted that the FTC report suggested that app designers be built with privacy protections, transparency, and choice. Leibowitz suggested that children's privacy may warrant treatment of geolocation data as personally identifiable data and require regulation. Turning to net neutrality, an audience question about publication of the net neutrality order led FCC Counsel Schlick to chime in from the audience to say the Paperwork Reduction Act was to blame, but did not offer a clear answer.
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Michael Turk is a Partner in CRAFT | Media / Digital, a full-spectrum communications agency. Learn more about CRAFT at www.craftdc.com.