Most parties commenting on the FCC’s proposed second...
Most parties commenting on the FCC’s proposed second protective order for its special access data request supported taking extra precautions to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive business information. The commenters also had some suggestions for how to make the protective…
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order more protective. Verizon said it agrees with the commission that “extra steps are necessary” to limit how reviewing parties can access sensitive information, and proposed what it called “minor” changes: prohibiting remote access to the Secure Data Enclave, and changing its proposed designations to “something less confusing” than “highly confidential data” and “highly confidential information” (http://bit.ly/12CRafU). CenturyLink focused on the protective order’s “inconsistent treatment” of information about non-tariffed agreements (http://bit.ly/12CS8Ja). “The information in those agreements is highly competitively sensitive, as it reflects the results of individual negotiations between purchasers and providers, and is not typically made publicly available,” CenturyLink said, asking that the data be “subject to the same protections as other highly confidential information sought in the data request.” But AT&T thinks the proposed new protective order “has the potential to unnecessarily complicate -- and possibly impair -- the process of obtaining access to Highly Confidential information, especially data in electronic format,” it said (http://bit.ly/12CQUxt). AT&T encouraged the Wireline Bureau to continue to use the Second Protective Order for the mandatory data collection effort. If the bureau still wants to use the protective order, it should make some modifications, AT&T said, to “ensure that it provides parties to this proceeding with meaningful and efficient access to all of the data.” NCTA, warning of the sensitive nature of much of the collected data, suggested keeping the data private from outside parties “until it has done an internal review of the material and has made an initial determination of which information it might rely on in taking final action in the special access proceeding”; and permitting third parties to review the data “only at Commission headquarters, with no opportunity to print or download that data.” Cox asked for “additional precautionary measures on two fronts": expand the definition of presumptively highly confidential information, and restrict that access to commission staff “until the Commission has determined to rely on that information to develop new rules” (http://bit.ly/12CSpfc).