Intro

Who Should Call In

Attorneys, business executives, compliance officers and other privacy professional, agency officials and consultants involved in the drafting, development, and implementation of privacy policies, data breach protections, and related compliance issues

Why You Should Call In

In his tumultuous first hundred days, President Trump - supported (more or less) by a Republican-controlled Congress - has ushered in sweeping reversals of many of his predecessor's policies. Few are more contentious than privacy regulation. Shortly before last November's election, a divided Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under then-Chairman Wheeler released the FCC's controversial broadband privacy rules, which were to take effect throughout 2017. Shortly after Ajit Pai was named FCC Chairman, however, the agency stayed a portion of these rules that prescribe data security measures, essentially signaling that the rules would not survive.

The FCC's broadband privacy rules proved to be short-lived. Republican sponsored resolutions of disapproval of these rules quickly moved through both houses of Congress under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), and the President signed the Joint Resolution of Congress nullifying the broadband privacy rules on April 3, 2017. In addition to effectively repealing the FCC's 2016 broadband privacy rules, the CRA precludes the agency from adopting similar rules in the future.

Now that the FCC's broadband privacy rules are dismantled, where does that leave U.S. privacy regulation? Who will enforce it? And there is more.

Chairman Pai has now launched a proposed reexamination of the FCC's net neutrality rules, in particular the reclassification of broadband Internet as a Title II telecommunications service, which served as the primary regulatory hook upon which the old privacy rules were based. How will the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state authorities - which exercise overlapping privacy jurisdiction - respond? Where will that leave carriers, broadband and Internet content providers responsible for compliance with privacy laws?

Meanwhile, on the international front, how will the new U.S. administration deal with cross-border privacy protection, with the so-called "Privacy Shield" and with the General Data Protection Regulation coming into effect across the E.U. in May 2018?

How to unravel this privacy morass will be the subject of LSI's telebriefing on this highly controversial topic.

P.S. This telebriefing is just a prelude. Once the dust settles on these fast-moving developments, this coming September, 2017, LSI will sponsor a full two-day seminar on privacy developments and compliance here in the U.S. and abroad (with details forthcoming soon). For legal practitioners, executives, and other professionals in communications and information industry, few topics are more important. You won't want to miss either of these events.

~Walt Sapronov, Esq., Partner, Moderator, of Sapronov & Associates, P.C.

What You Will Learn

• Highlights of the broadband privacy rules: what remains after the Congressional Review Act (CRA) and what future role will the FCC play in privacy regulation?
• How will these developments affect FTC enforcement? Are state privacy laws preempted? How does one comply?
• How will the U.S. administration deal with foreign privacy laws? Does the Privacy Shield still work? What happens next for cross-border transfer?