The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a May 11 hearing on the FCC's proposed broadband privacy framework, oversight the FCC inherited from the Federal Trade Commission when the FCC reclassified ISPs under Title II and it has lined up an A-list witness table.
Scheduled to testify are FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, senior Republican Ajit Pai, FTC chair Edith Ramirez and Republican Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen.
The FCC has proposed a privacy framework that requires ISPs to get their subscribers' permission before allowing third parties to use their information for marketing purposes, unless the marketing is for an ISP service like bundling broadband, voice and video, in which case subs would have an option to opt out.
ISPs argued the FCC should have followed the FTC model, which is to enforce voluntary privacy policies under its authority to go after unfairness and deception--via filing suit--rather than create new rules.
