Regulators are discussing data security concerns: Ajit Pai

Telecommunications Director who serves as the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Varadaraj Pai, on Thursday said the regulators around the world are discussing data security concerns of Facebook and Google users. A major decision is expected.

When asked if companies such as Facebook and Google take more responsibility in ensuring data protection, Pai said: “This is one of the issues that the US Congress is evaluating right now, where there is a robust conversation on the types of privacy and data security protections that should be embedded in the law. I would expect our elected officials over the next several months to continue that conversation.”

There seems to be a bipartisan agreement between Republicans and Democrats, and agreement in both houses of Congress that this is an issue that requires legislative attention, he said.

“From an administration perspective, this is more of an issue for the Federal Trade Commission, which has jurisdiction over privacy and data security issues. This is the topic of hot interest in our Legislature,” Pai said. For instance, issues relating to, what kind of algorithms are they using to determine what content is seen and what is not in a Google search, how Facebook feed is defined, when Twitter decides what accounts to suspend — what are the rules behind that. “The need for transparency that will allow consumers to make better decisions is something that will serve everybody well,” he said.

Consistent policy

On data localisation, which is a hot topic right now in India with the Data Protection Act, he said: “The internet, inherently, is an inter-State service. Virtually any communication that happens on the internet traverses State boundaries. You cannot have 50 different State laws, thousands of municipal laws.”

Ultimately, the position was that one needs to have a consistent policy. It is similar to what the previous FCC did in 2015, when it preempted inconsistent State regulations. That is simply the position we are taking here, he said.

It is not upon the government to say, based on standards that are impossible to define, with any precision about what news should be allowed to publish. I do think that there might be a conversation about what types of regulations to these platforms, he added. Asked about a perfect Net neutrality in the digital world, Pai said the broad contours of internet is really upon, “we don’t want to walk into see awful content, we don’t want to see any competitive paid privatisation, we don’t want to be the transparencies that consumers can understand the service plans.”

These are the types of things that formed freedom of internet of generations since its commercialisation in the 1990s.

“Those are the type of things that we hope that the US is qualified and US Congress needs to update a lot. But, it is not updated a lot in this regard since 1996… so I think once we are qualified with those basic principles, we can move onto and actually is a foremost concern right now,” Pai added.

COMMENT NOW