The FCC has granted a temporary stay of one aspect of the 2016 Privacy Order related to data security that was originally scheduled to take effect on March 2, 2017. The provision would require broadband providers to take “reasonable” measures to protect customers’ data from unauthorized use, access, or disclosure. However, the petitioners who filed the stay request expressed concern that this standard would impose unfair compliance burdens on ISPs by subjecting them to a different standard from the one applied to other Internet companies by the Federal Trade Commission. The interim stay on the data security requirements established in the Order will remain in place until the FCC votes on a reconsideration of the rules. In the meantime, service providers that were subject to the Commission’s preexisting data security requirements remain bound to those rules. The full text of the FCC’s order granting the stay petition in part is available here.
