Chairman Ajit Pai is seeking to stay a portion of the FCC’s new broadband privacy rules before they take effect on March 2, 2017. Last October, the FCC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler adopted privacy rules requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to obtain customers’ consent before using and sharing their data. Pai’s requested stay does not target all of those regulations, but rather goes after one element of the rules related to security protocols and other measures ISPs must take to protect the collected data. Pai wants the FCC’s privacy rules for broadband providers to match the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) looser privacy regulations. If all the Commissioners are willing to cast their votes by March 2, then the full Commission will adjudicate the stay request. Otherwise, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau will suspend that one element of the privacy rules on delegated authority pending a full Commission vote.
