[HN Gopher] FCC: Telcos must now tell you when your personal inf...
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       FCC: Telcos must now tell you when your personal info is stolen
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 144 points
       Date   : 2024-02-12 19:44 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theregister.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theregister.com)
        
       | SlightlyLeftPad wrote:
       | Balls of steel the FCC has. Is this the first consumer friendly
       | thing they've actually done in a couple decades?
        
       | rsynnott wrote:
       | I mean, that doesn't seem _particularly_ tough.
        
       | tristor wrote:
       | I like how this is considered "tough". What would be tough is
       | instituting actual data security and privacy regulations that
       | telcos and service providers have to follow at risk of being
       | fined out of business to be replaced by an organization that can.
        
       | bdcravens wrote:
       | I suspect it being stolen is less common than it being sold.
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | I get hardcore phishing emails sent to the email address I have
         | only used with AT&T DSL. full email address, full first,
         | middle, last name.
        
       | doublerabbit wrote:
       | Curse my cynical mind of the delayed "ohhh, we had no idea we
       | were breached. Sorry about that folks btw your details were
       | stolen lol" excuse.
        
       | happytiger wrote:
       | Yea, that'll teach them. Now they have to _tell you_ when they
       | utterly fail to protect you.
       | 
       | Just as hard hitting as making robovoices illegal rather than
       | requiring providers to end spam calls on their networks
       | effectively.
       | 
       | https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-makes-ai-generated-voices-r....
       | 
       | Bear in mind this is the TOP consumer complaint. And they have
       | done basically a minor law change to clarify that the law still
       | applies, and that it's definitely still illegal. Uh, but they
       | haven't addressed the problem or fixed it in any substantive way.
       | 
       | Such a _tough_ FCC.
       | 
       | I will say that Jessica Rosenworcel is an angel compared to Ajit
       | "Screw Consumers ITB As Much As Possible" Pai. I miss that guy
       | like a hemmeroid. I'm sure he's enjoying his job as a partner at
       | the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital where he is now
       | seeking to "close the gap" on the broadband failures he was
       | largely responsible for expanding for several years.
       | 
       | https://www.wsj.com/articles/searchlight-capital-bets-on-uni...
       | 
       | It's amazing. The FCC seems to be either very bad at their job or
       | completely 0wn3d by the revolving door of private industry.
        
         | drtz wrote:
         | > Such a tough FCC.
         | 
         | I had the same thought: this is "tough?"
         | 
         | No fines for failing to protect your data? No additional
         | requirements for data security? They just have to tell you when
         | the screwed up.
         | 
         |  _sigh_
        
           | happytiger wrote:
           | Yea. This is failure masquerading as improvement as far as I
           | can honestly tell. The idea that someone thought it was a
           | good idea to put out a press release or whatever is a little
           | baffling.
           | 
           | It should read, "FCC once again fails to substantively
           | improve the lives of consumers OR address data breaches and
           | the loss of consumer data by countless companies."
           | 
           | Its baffling. But it's still better than the TSA. ;)
        
           | RajT88 wrote:
           | Once upon a time the FCC had a reputation as the "Benevolent
           | Dictator" (at least when I once worked for an ISP).
           | 
           | No longer.
        
         | KRAKRISMOTT wrote:
         | They need to carry identity theft insurance for sim swapping
         | and other similar attacks, or if a rogue employee misuses the
         | data (very common considering that they probably have tens of
         | thousands of front line staff with access to customer data).
        
       | throwbadubadu wrote:
       | ... what's up next in this tough cruel world? Banks must tell you
       | when someone stole your money? Companies must tell you when they
       | go bankrupt and gambled your assets? I fear madness ahead.
        
       | aeternum wrote:
       | One major problem is that PII/Personal info is uselessly broad.
       | 
       | Legislation like this would be much more useful if it had clear
       | rules or fines for various levels of PII. For example, getting
       | your social security number stolen is significantly worse than a
       | stolen e-mail address or phone number.
       | 
       | All the notifications about e-mail being "stolen" are just noise
       | that few care about.
        
         | ummonk wrote:
         | What's actually insane is treating an unchanging non random 9
         | digit retirement benefits identifier as some kind of secret,
         | knowledge of which is assumed to be proof of identity.
        
       | dylan604 wrote:
       | So immediately after a new user signs up, they should just send
       | out an email saying their data has been taken. save everyone
       | time.
        
       | Repulsion9513 wrote:
       | The <title> is much more accurate: FCC publishes final version of
       | new breach report rules
        
       | johnny99k wrote:
       | I think I've gotten at least 5 different notices in the mail from
       | different companies (healthcare, kids school) that told me my
       | info was involved in a breach. I figured some new law must have
       | gotten passed because most companies would never do this
       | willingly.
        
         | WaitWaitWha wrote:
         | You know what is even more frustrating?
         | 
         | When I get 5 different notices in the mail from different
         | companies that told me my info was involved in a breach, * _and
         | I never did direct business with any of them or have been
         | notified that my data been given to them, ever.*_
        
       | nottorp wrote:
       | Why just telcos?
        
         | dredmorbius wrote:
         | Because the remit and legislative mandate of the US Federal
         | Communications Commission is ... communications:
         | 
         |  _As specified in section one of the Communications Act, the
         | Commission's mission is to "make available, so far as possible,
         | to all the people of the United States, without discrimination
         | on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex,
         | rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio
         | communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable
         | charges." 1 In addition, section one provides that the
         | Commission was created "for the purpose of the national
         | defense" and "for the purpose of promoting safety of life and
         | property through the use of wire and radio communications."_
         | 
         | FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Fiscal Year 2008 Performance
         | and Accountability Report, p. 4:
         | <https://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/ar2008.pdf>
         | 
         | For general commercial enterprise requirements, you'd want the
         | Federal _Trade_ Commission, whose mandates are antitrust and
         | general consumer protection.
        
       | timmattison wrote:
       | Wow, they have to do what other companies have to do. Brutal. /s
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | I'm sorry, but a set of circumstances have led to your data being
       | lost. We're making sure that set of circumstances will never
       | occur exactly the same way it did.
       | 
       | Sincerely,
       | 
       | James Johnson Jr.
       | 
       | CEO BigNetCorp
        
       | olliej wrote:
       | I'll take it as being tough when companies are financially liable
       | for data exposure along the same lines of HIPAA. Maybe something
       | akin to:
       | 
       | * $10 per element of data not directly required for legal
       | purposes or for the direct provision of services explicitly
       | requested by customers (e.g. their shipping address)
       | 
       | * $2 for element of data not legally mandated.
       | 
       | For data stored to meet legal data retention requirements:
       | 
       | * If the law requires that information be made available in a
       | fully automated and online manner, then $0.50 per element of
       | data, and $5 per element of data from the government (state vs
       | federal) that mandated the data be stored and accessible
       | 
       | * If the law does not require fully automated online access, then
       | if the data is not encrypted such that it requires concurrent
       | action by multiple employees to decrypt, then it's $100/data
       | (e.g. no claiming it's needed for legal reasons but keeping it
       | accessible for profit reasons).
       | 
       | Essentially, make it so customer data is not purely a balance
       | sheet asset.
       | 
       | Also make it so credit agencies knowingly reporting incorrect
       | information is a crime, and make them liable for all costs
       | incurred (higher interest rates) and financial penalties for
       | extreme cases (refusing loans outright, refusing rental,
       | demanding higher deposits, etc). The fact that the agencies
       | themselves are selling "monitoring services" shows that they are
       | aware that their reporting is fraudulent.
        
         | balderdash wrote:
         | There should also be a sliding scale element e.g. fines doubled
         | if for more than 100k customers affected, if over a million the
         | greater of 20% of gross profit or 10x the fine...etc.
        
       | apapapa wrote:
       | So futuristic
        
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