The FCC Wireless Bureau gave broadband providers Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Starry a June 15 deadline for explaining their need to use an alternative to the national verifier system for verifying subscribers' eligibility to take part in the Affordable Connectivity Program, per letters (Charter, Cox and Starry) Wednesday. In the letters, the bureau also directs the three to confirm through the National Verifier the eligibility of their ACP subscribers approved via those companies' alternative processes. "We remain concerned that alternative verification processes, although allowed by the law, may result in improper enrollments," potentially resulting in ACP waste, fraud or abuse, the bureau said.

The largest cable, wireline telcos and fixed wireless providers, with about 96% of the U.S. broadband market, acquired about 960,000 net additional broadband subscribers in Q1, compared with a pro forma gain of about 1,085,000 the same quarter a year earlier, Leichtman Research Group said Monday. It said the biggest cable companies added about 65,000 in the quarter, compared with 485,000 net adds in Q1 2022, while wireline telcos lost about 20,000 in the quarter compared with gains of 65,000 in Q1 2022. It said Verizon and T-Mobile fixed wireless services added 915,000 subs, compared with 530,000 net adds the same quarter a year earlier.

NBCUniversal Global Advertising Chair Linda Yaccarino will be Twitter’s CEO starting this summer, Elon Musk announced Friday. Musk said he will transition to executive chairman and chief technology officer and oversee product design and new technology. Yaccarino, who has worked at NBCUniversal for almost 12 years, will focus on business operations, said Musk.

EU lawmakers oppose the proposed EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, they said in a resolution Thursday. The draft decision is an improvement, but it doesn't provide enough safeguards for trans-Atlantic data flows, and the European Commission shouldn't give the U.S. an adequacy decision finding that it offers the same level of personal data protection as the EU, they said. Lawmakers noted the proposal still allows bulk collection of personal data in some cases, doesn't make such collection subject to independent prior authorization and fails to provide clear rules on data retention. The scheme creates a data protection review court to provide redress to EU citizens whose data has been misused, but the court's decisions would be secret, violating citizens' right to access and correct data about themselves. Moreover, since the president could dismiss the judges and overturn court decisions, the court wouldn't be independent, they said. A data transfer regime must be future-proof, and the assessment of adequacy must be based on the practical implementation of rules, parliament said: With the U.S. intelligence community still in the process of updating its practices based on the framework, gauging its impact on the ground isn't possible. The resolution urged the EC to deny an adequacy decision and "instead negotiate a data transfer framework that is likely to be held up in court." The EC floated the proposed adequacy decision in December, saying the U.S. now ensures an adequate level of personal data protection (see 2212130040). In April, the European Data Protection Supervisor praised the U.S. for taking a strong, new approach to safeguarding Europeans' personal data ((see 2304270007).

The FTC plans to vote May 18 on a policy statement listing practices the agency will scrutinize in the enforcement of biometric data abuse, the commission announced Thursday. The policy statement “will list examples of some of the practices the Commission will scrutinize in determining whether companies collecting and/or using or marketing biometric information technologies are complying with Section 5 of the FTC Act,” the agency said in its commission meeting announcement. The commission is scheduled to vote on an NPRM to amend the health breach notification rule. Potential amendments would “help clarify technologies and entities covered by the Rule, facilitate greater electronic breach notices to consumers, and expand the required content of the notices, among other changes,” the FTC said.

The FTC’s annual performance report suggests the agency is devoting far more resources to rulemakings and policy changes than it is to consumer protection enforcement, a former Consumer Protection Bureau director said Friday. The performance report for 2022 and performance plan for 2023-24 shows the FTC returned $2.79 billion to the public and/or the U.S. Treasury resulting from enforcement in fiscal 2020. Numbers show the agency returned $2.39 billion in fiscal 2021 and $2.28 billion in fiscal 2022. It’s unclear how much the agency’s $5 billion privacy settlement with Facebook in 2019 factored into those amounts, if at all. But the FTC’s report shows targets of $65 million in 2023 and $65 million in 2024. “There is an indication that on the consumer protection side, the performance is slagging,” said Kelley Drye’s Bill MacLeod, a former FTC Consumer Protection Bureau director, during an International Center for Law & Economics event Friday. FTC Chair Lina Khan testified on the agency’s proposed $590 million budget last month with Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter before House Commerce Committee members (see 2304180077). “The commission is lowering its goals and objectives, looking to accomplish less with more resources than it has in years past,” said Macleod. He was pressed during Q&A about the agency’s loss of its Section 13(b) disgorgement authority (see 2104270086), which commissioners warned will result in less return for consumers, and how that loss factors into performance. MacLeod conceded the loss of Section 13(b) authority “hobbled” the commission, but it seems to an extent that the “cops have been taken off the beat” under Khan’s watch. He said her focus on rulemakings makes it more difficult to focus on basic law enforcement.

Industry has an ethical, moral and legal responsibility to ensure artificial intelligence products are safe and secure, said Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday. She and administration officials met at the White House with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar were among administration attendees. Harris said she and President Joe Biden, who also briefly attended, are committed to “doing our part,” which includes advancing potential regulations and supporting new legislation “so that everyone can safely benefit from technological innovations.” AI technology comes with significant opportunities and risks, she said, citing concerns about AI’s “potential to dramatically increase threats to safety and security, infringe civil rights and privacy, and erode public trust and faith in democracy.”

Congress should enact legislation to improve prosecution of crimes involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) instead of advancing bills that affect tech industry liability, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said Monday. CCIA sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee with CTA, NetChoice and various trade groups opposing the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (Earn It) Act. The committee is to mark up the legislation Thursday (see 2304200032). TechNet, the Software & Information Industry Association, Chamber of Progress, ACT|The App Association and Engine also signed the letter. “As the technology sector makes millions of CSAM referrals each year that result in only a small percentage of indictments, we encourage Congress to enact legislation to increase the number of prosecutions of bad actors,” said CCIA President Matt Schruers. Threatening companies that “partner with law enforcement with legal liability would result in more dangerous content online,” he said. The bill would also weaken incentives for maintaining strong encryption standards, said CCIA.

The U.S. has taken a strong, new approach to safeguarding the data of European citizens, European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiorowski said at a Thursday briefing. For a long time, there seemed to be no change in access by U.S. intelligence services to personal data, but now there's progress Wiewiorowski said he didn't expect. The EDPS still has some concerns, he said, but they can be addressed in the review of the new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and he sees no obstacles to the use of the European Commission's (draft) adequacy decision allowing trans-Atlantic data flows (see 2212130040). Asked whether he's disappointed about how the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) is being enforced against Big Tech, Wiewiorowski said he's not but believes there's room for improvement. The Irish Data Protection Commission issued decisions against several companies, such as WhatsApp (see 2301190005) and Meta (see 2301040014) and 2211290001), but these haven't received responses from complainants or the European Data Protection Board, he said. The next step could be a discussion on expanding the board's role since many issues are cross-border, Wiewiorowski said. This year is the GDPR's fifth anniversary, he noted.

The EU named the Big Tech firms subject to stricter rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA) Tuesday, and the U.K. government floated legislation aimed at cracking down on their market dominance in Britain. The DSA governs providers of intermediary services such as social media; online marketplaces; very large online platforms (those with at least 45 million active monthly users in the EU); and very large search engines. Those designated very large platforms and search engines must offer users a system for recommending content that's not based on profiling, and analyze the systemic risks they create for dissemination of illegal content or harmful effects on fundamental rights (see 2210040001). The list of 17 very large online platforms includes Amazon Store, Google (Play, Maps and Shopping), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube. The two very large online search engines are Bing and Google Search. They have four months to comply with the DSA. Meanwhile, the U.K. said Tuesday it also intends to crack down on Big Tech market dominance. The government introduced a bill establishing new powers to boost competition in "digital markets currently dominated by a small number of firms," clamp down on subscription traps to make it easier for consumers to opt out, and tackle fake reviews that cheat consumers via bogus ratings. The measure would give a Digital Markets Unit (DMU) within the Competition and Markets Authority new powers to go after large tech companies whose market dominance "stifled innovation and growth across the economy, holding back start-ups and small firms from accessing markets and consumers." The DMU could set tailored rules for businesses deemed to have strategic market status in key digital areas, with the biggest firms potentially required to give customers more choice and transparency. Failure to comply could mean fines of up to 10% of a company's global revenue. The measure needs parliamentary approval.