The privacy rights of consumers have been under entirely new kinds of pressure since the advent of the internet, to the extent that the international Global Privacy Enforcement Network has been formed, and the United States’ own FCC is a member.
The agency will “…promote and support law enforcement cooperation and collaboration on cross-border privacy enforcement actions.” It consists of some 50 data protection authorites.
“We live in an interconnected world where threats to consumer privacy and data security often require the cooperation of numerous law enforcement agencies around the world,” said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. “Every day Americans continue to have their personal data compromised by attacks from beyond our borders – like phone scams operated by identity thieves based thousands of miles away. If we are to detect, disrupt, and dismantle these persistent global privacy assaults, it is critical that we work closely with our international partners abroad, as well as our federal, state, and local partners here at home.”
Laws on the books in the US and of concern to the FCC includes unauthorized use of citizen information garnered from internet sources for any number of purposes, and failure to protect consumer information from hackers.
