National Broadband Plan Workshop on Consumer Welfare (see summary)

National Broadband Plan Workshop (Consumer Welfare)

See summary of the workshop

See a webcast of the event

Federal Communications Commission
Room TW-C305 (Commission Meeting Room)
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554

Sept 9, 2009
1:30pm-5:00pm

Contact:
Andrew Nesi
Andrew.Nesi@fcc.gov
(202) 418-3601
http://broadband.gov/ws_consumer_welfare.html

The goal of this workshop is to consider ways in which broadband can improve consumer welfare and what are the barriers to consumers enjoying those benefits. The workshop will look at ways in which consumers use the internet today and how they are likely to do so in the future, and consider whether that use can be expanded through policies that improve the consumer experience. The workshop will also look at the way consumers buy broadband and whether there are any policies that would help increase adoption, utilization or in other ways address the Congressional goals for the national broadband plan.

Government Participants:

• John Horrigan, Consumer Research Director, Omnibus Broadband Initiative
• Marc Berejka, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce
• Robert Cannon, Senior Counsel for Internet Law, Federal Communications Commission
• Brian David, Adoption and Usage Director, Omnibus Broadband Initiative
• Mark Wroblewski, Deputy Director, Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission

Panelists:

• Michael R. Nelson, Visiting Professor, Communication, Culture and Technology, Georgetown University
• Sascha Meinrath, Director, Open Technology Initiative, New America Foundation
• Joel Kelsey, Policy Analyst, Consumers Union
• Ari Schwartz, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Center for Democracy and Technology
• Adam Thierer, Director, Center for Digital Media Freedom and Senior Fellow, Progress and Freedom Foundation (see prepared presentation)
• Alan Simpson, Director of Policy, Common Sense Media
• Burke Culligan, Senior Director, Product Management, Yahoo!, Inc. (see prepared presentation)
• Michael W. McKeehan, Executive Director, Internet and Technology Policy, Verizon (see prepared presentation)
• Timothy Sparapani, Director, Public Policy, Facebook

The following are some of the preliminary topics that will be covered at this workshop. The FCC is inviting suggestions.

• Transparency
• Ratings
• Price comparisons
• Privacy
• Security

Here's a look at what some are already telling the FCC about broadband and consumerwelfare...

Public Knowledge, the Media Access Project, the New America Foundation and U.S. PIRG
To correct the failures of our recent broadband policy, we suggest several elements that should be part of a new policy:

• An open Internet should be the foundation of the National Broadband Plan. The FCC should move quickly to adopt a non-discrimination principle, which will allow the Internet to operate as an open system as it has from the start. Activities such as monitoring Internet connections for copyrighted materials must not be allowed, just as opening of mail is not allowed to be part of a widespread fishing expedition on behalf of a private industry.
• User privacy must be protected in areas of content and customer records.
• Consumer rights must be rigorously enforced, with Internet Service Providers required to provide the services they advertise, without hidden charges or unfair practices.
• The Universal Service Fund and Lifeline programs must be restructured to aid in the deployment of broadband networks. Broadband, not voice communications, is the "must have" utility of the 21st century, and a broadband plan should address continuing funding needs for upgrades of networks and demand-side outreach and training.

The regulatory regime should reflect the failures of the marketplace, which have resulted in minimal competition, and higher rates for lower speeds than in many other industrialized nations.

National Consumers League
A lesson from the telephone marketplace can be applied in this instance to the broadband marketplace. In numerous states where telephone rates remain regulated, the cost of providing basic dial-tone service is kept low so as to remain affordable to the great majority of consumers. Similarly, numerous federal programs including the Universal Service Fund and the Lifeline and Link-Up programs seek to keep telephone rates affordable. While this basic service does not provide a high-level of functionality it does provide a degree of connection to essential local services for consumers.

In the Notice of Inquiry, the Commission requests comment regarding how broadband stimulus and universal service funds can be used to address consumers' broadband needs. We support the use of broadband stimulus funds to begin to address the goal of deploying ubiquitous, universally accessible broadband, focusing first on unserved and underserved areas. Building out broadband is not sufficient to eliminate the Digital Divide if the resulting service is not affordable, however. To achieve a baseline level of affordability, we urge the Commission to pair the use of broadband funds with an expansion of the Lifeline and Link-Up programs to encompass broadband, with appropriate funding coming from the Universal Service Fund.

Media Access Project
To meet the constitutional imperative to create a vibrant platform for democratic discourse and to promote the exchange of political, social, artistic and philosophical expression, as well to create an opportunity for economic growth and innovation, the FCC should take an aggressive view of the role of government in the buildout and expansion of broadband. National broadband access can revolutionize the way that American citizens communicate, work, entertain, and inform themselves, but unless federal action is taken to ensure that such access is truly affordable, competitive and ubiquitous, the digital divide will grow into a gaping chasm.

Electronic Privacy Information Center
In keeping with this history, the Commission should exercise its ancillary jurisdiction to ensure that the national broadband plan includes robust privacy safeguards, lest consumers' critical broadband privacy interests go unaddressed. The rollout of national broadband will dramatically increase the incentives for and potential value of collecting and selling personal consumer information; reliance on industry self-regulation, therefore, is unlikely to be sufficient. Indeed, even now, industry self-regulation has not prevented ISPs and major Internet companies from collecting and using consumer data in extremely troubling ways. Furthermore, although lawmakers have indicated plans to propose legislation protecting Internet privacy, such legislation is not guaranteed to become law. Even if an Internet privacy law were passed, it may not provide adequate privacy protections. Therefore, the Commission can and should lead the way by explicitly enshrining consumer privacy protections in the national broadband plan.

Center for Digital Democracy, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and U.S. PIRG
Studies show that consumers are concerned about online privacy, eschewing intrusive data collection and sharing when they learn of such practices. However, most consumers do not know about these types of data collection and sharing, nor do they understand the privacy and security risks that are part of online commerce. And young consumers especially have difficulty understanding these risks, as children and adolescents are at a developmental disadvantage to give meaningful and informed consent to collection of their personal data. We urge the FCC to take the steps detailed below in to protect consumer privacy rights from exploitation.

Family Online Safety Institute
We can build such a culture of responsibility online if six layers work together in tandem: 1) government; 2) law enforcement; 3) industry; 4) teachers; 5) parents; 6) kids. Specifically, we can create a safe, healthy and productive environment for kids online if we have:

1) Reasonable government support;
2) Fully resourced law enforcement;
3) Robust and comprehensive industry self-regulation;
4) Tech-savvy teachers;
5) Empowered parents; and
6) Resilient kids making wise choices about the content they access and post online, the
people they contact, the people they allow to contact them, and how they conduct
themselves when online.

Keeping kids safe online is a shared responsibility. If each of the players noted above is
empowered with the resources needed to accomplish this achievable goal, we will have a culture
of responsible digital citizens making wise choices online.

Consumer Policy Solutions

• Broadband service should reach all households.
• The benefits of broadband enhance daily life for all consumers. The value is even potentially greater for some underserved populations, particularly older individuals.
• The national broadband plan must commit to a robust strategy for adoption.
• The barriers to adoption should be addressed in the broadband plan with remedies to reduce those barriers.
• Any broadband plan should also consider issues that impact not only adoption, but also the retention and value of broadband service.

The Future Of Privacy Forum
The national broadband plan should make clear that transparency and control are essential to consumers' confidence about the privacy of their information online, and that only with such consumer confidence will we achieve the Internet usage that is tied to our national broadband goals. Internet companies operating under the national broadband plan must recognize that they have an ongoing relationship with their customers and that continued trust from customers is critical to maintaining that relationship, and to growing Internet business. Such trust can only be achieved if consumers feel that they are receiving sufficient information about and are in control of how their personal data is used online. Thus, when Internet companies offer customized online experiences through the collection and use of user data, or participate in targeted online advertising, they must make clear to consumers what is happening and must give consumers real choice over the collection and use of their data for such activities.

Data Foundry
NOI specifically addresses issue of broadband privacy - these comments address how to protect internet user's privacy. Comments will address looming threats posed by deep packet inspection and monitoring of internet by broadband providers.

• Data Foundry requests the Commission to state a declaration of public policy against the compulsory waiver of privacy as a condition of receiving broadband service. This declaration would be privately enforceable in courts of law and would empower Internet users to protect their own privacy. A public policy against terms of service that impose monitoring would set a default rule of privacy for the Internet, rather than the current default of no-privacy.

Monitored Internet: most top providers use DPI and peer into Americans internet use. DPI tends to be masked under the term network management.

• this highly-invasive form of monitoring presents a lucrative opportunity for broadband providers to monetize the content and various forms of traffic that touch their networks. This presents a clear conflict between the business interests of the broadband providers and the privacy interests of Internet users.

Implications of an Internet w/o privacy.

• Threatens consumer surfing and business development on the web as well as financial transactions done over the internet.

Solution: Protection of Privacy as a Public Policy

• Users that want and require privacy should not be forced to submit to DPI as a mandatory condition of service and should have the opportunity to remain free from monitoring. DPI must only occur with the user's informed consent (opt-in) and actual knowledge that the result will be the total waiver of all expectations of privacy in the inspected communications. This standard of voluntary monitoring - rather than mandatory monitoring - would set privacy as the default rule for American broadband.
• FCC should mandate the rule through a simple declaration of public policy against non consensual monitoring of users communications.
• Such a declaration would be enforceable in courts, under traditional contract and consumer protection laws. This would empower Internet users to protect their own privacy rights by ensuring that broadband Internet access is never offered on a monitored-only basis. Should broadband providers violate this public policy and offer Internet access without a clear opt-in requirement for monitoring, it would be the consumers themselves and their state attorneys general that would bring broadband providers back into compliance.