Privacy concerns remain in FCC’s new set-top box proposal

After FCC Commissioners, politicians, creative artists, networks, and pay-TV providers raised privacy and copyright concerns, Chairman Tom Wheeler said he would reconsider his original set-top box proposal. Now he’s released a new proposal, with minor improvements but the same old major customer privacy concerns.

The FCC wants to “unlock the box” or give consumers alternatives to the cable and satellite companies’ video set-top boxes. The original proposal was a transparent Google give-away: the FCC proposed upending the video market system, allowing the search giant and other third parties to free-load off the value and audiences that video distributors, networks, and programmers have jointly created. In short, Google and others would have had free access to viewers’ data. And data means money.

Facing opposition from some FCC Commissioners and politicians like Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Wheeler and Google’s lobbyists went back to the drawing board. The new set-top box proposal makes some concessions to opponents of the original by adopting an app-based approach. Ultimately, though, the new proposal is a slightly less transparent Google give-away: the FCC would still require video providers to release customer information to third-parties – and that’s Google’s goal.

Third-party companies like Google want to use video customer data to increase advertising revenue. The problem is that they aren’t regulated like the video providers. Pay-TV companies have statutory obligations to protect viewers’ privacy, but tech companies and electronics manufacturers are not subject to those rules. That’s a fundamental flaw in the Chairman’s proposal. For that reason, we echo the New York Times op-ed that ran when this whole attempt to unlock a revenue stream began: “Don’t hand our TVs over to Google.”

Links:

FCC Fact Sheet: Chairman Wheeler’s Proposal to Increase Consumer Choice & Innovation in the Video Marketplace (FCC, Sept. 8, 2016)

FCC chairman: Here are the new proposed rules for set-top boxes (LA Times, Sept. 8, 2016)

FCC moves to open up the set-top box market (Speed Matters, Feb. 22, 2016)

FCC reconsidering set-top box proposal (Speed Matters, June 27, 2016)

Don’t Hand Our TVs Over to Google (New York Times, May 30, 2016)

Set-top box Comments to the FCC (CWA, Apr. 22, 2016)

Set-top box Comments to the FCC (DGA/IATSE, Apr. 22, 2016)