The FTC released a long-awaited report on cross-device tracking that recaps a November 2015 workshop that focused on companies tracking consumers across their various connected devices from laptops to smartphones to wearable gear. It raised privacy and transparency questions about data collection, use, sharing and retention (see 1610200025). Commissioners voted 3-0 to issue the staff report Monday, providing general recommendations to companies, with Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen providing a concurring statement, noting that a 2009 industry report covered much the same ground. Many people have speculated she may run the agency at least on an interim basis (see 1701230043).

Elevating Ajit Pai to chairman, as expected (see 1701200051), means the FCC can proceed directly into its new agenda under President Donald Trump, without complications of an interim chairmanship and a long waiting period for a new chairman to arrive. Pai’s positions are already well known -- he has been a commissioner since May 2012, a nearly five-year track record -- so there's relatively little uncertainty on where he stands on many issues. Before he was a commissioner, Pai worked for the FCC Office of General Counsel.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Jan. 20 directed the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies to temporarily postpone until March 21 the effective dates of regulations published in the Federal Register that haven’t taken effect. The Trump administration will review “questions of fact, law, and policy” the regulations raise, Priebus said in the memo (here). The directive also instructs agencies to consider proposing for notice and comment rules to delay the effective date even longer “where appropriate and as permitted by applicable law,” with no further action needed for unsubstantial rulemakings and notification of the Office of Management and Budget for regulations that present substantial law or policy questions.

Outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warned against attempts to "gut" the agency, including by moving core telecom oversight functions to the FTC. He also defended the commission's actions on net neutrality, broadband reclassification, privacy, zero rating, the incentive auction, USF changes and other issues. He was interviewed on C-SPAN's The Communicators (scheduled to air Saturday and Monday and posted here), the latest in a series of exit interviews and farewell appearances (see 1701190069 and 1701130064) before Donald Trump's inauguration as president on Friday, Wheeler's last day at the agency.

Outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warned against attempts to "gut" the agency, including by moving core telecom oversight functions to the FTC. He also defended the commission's actions on net neutrality, broadband reclassification, privacy, zero rating, the incentive auction, USF changes and other issues. He was interviewed on C-SPAN's The Communicators (scheduled to air Saturday and Monday and posted here), the latest in a series of exit interviews and farewell appearances (see 1701190069 and 1701130064) before Donald Trump's inauguration as president on Friday, Wheeler's last day at the agency.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Jan. 23. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Trump said after he signed the order (here). “Great thing for the American worker, what we just did.” Congressional Democrats and unions, predictably, supported the action, while others expressed disappointment. The text of the executive order wasn't yet available.

New members of the California Public Utilities Commission raised concerns about federal changes to Lifeline eligibility as they signed off Thursday on an order to begin to align the state and federal low-income programs. The CPUC voted 5-0 to approve the item, which aligned several aspects of the programs but left the proceeding open to act later on others. The order continues discounts and reimbursements for service connection and activation charges for California wireless services, capped at $39 for two years; adds a 60-day portability freeze to reduce churn among California LifeLine providers and implements the federal 60-day port freeze for voice services, CPUC President Michael Picker said. The agency later will address remaining matters including eligibility criteria and implementing a 12-month port freeze for broadband internet access service. The FCC granted California a waiver of its Dec. 2 federal Lifeline deadline until June 1 on port freeze requirements and Oct. 31 on eligibility rules. While agreeing it’s important to harmonize the programs, the two new commissioners -- Clifford Rechtschaffen and Martha Guzman Aceves -- said they worried about the 80,000 California households that staff found could lose eligibility under the new rules. They won’t lose eligibility right away and other programs may render them eligible or otherwise fill in the gap, but Rechtschaffen plans to monitor the impact of the rule changes, he said. Aceves said she’s “particularly bothered” about eliminating eligibility criteria but hopes to work on the issue with other commissioners as the proceeding continues. Consumer groups earlier warned commissioners not to lose focus on consumers while aligning the low-income programs (see 1701110032). The new commissioners have energy backgrounds and aren’t expected to focus much on telecom matters (see 1701030043). Ex-Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, who previously led the Lifeline proceeding, attended Thursday’s meeting and gave a thumbs-up after the Lifeline vote, CPUC Picker revealed from the dais.

Last week's confirmation hearings of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., raised more questions than answers about how President-elect Donald Trump's choice for attorney general would protect privacy and civil liberties, wrote Center for Democracy & Technology fellow Natasha Duarte in a Thursday blog post. She said Sessions opposed the USA Freedom Act, which ended NSA's bulk phone records collection program, though it never discovered or disrupted a terrorist plot. "However, at his confirmation hearing, Sessions would not admit that the USA Freedom Act bars the NSA from engaging in bulk collection of Americans’ phone records," she wrote. In Sessions' exchange with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Pat Leahy, D-Vt., about the act (see 1701090038), Leahy was able to get Sessions to commit to upholding the law, she said, "but not a belief that the Act ends bulk collection, which was the overall purpose of the legislation." It left the door open for bulk collection, she noted. Duarte also said Sessions wouldn't commit to following DOJ standards for subpoenaing journalists, which raises a concern that the department "may conduct unnecessary or overly broad investigations of the news media."

Last week's confirmation hearings of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., raised more questions than answers about how President-elect Donald Trump's choice for attorney general would protect privacy and civil liberties, wrote Center for Democracy & Technology fellow Natasha Duarte in a Thursday blog post. She said Sessions opposed the USA Freedom Act, which ended NSA's bulk phone records collection program, though it never discovered or disrupted a terrorist plot. "However, at his confirmation hearing, Sessions would not admit that the USA Freedom Act bars the NSA from engaging in bulk collection of Americans’ phone records," she wrote. In Sessions' exchange with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Pat Leahy, D-Vt., about the act (see 1701090038), Leahy was able to get Sessions to commit to upholding the law, she said, "but not a belief that the Act ends bulk collection, which was the overall purpose of the legislation." It left the door open for bulk collection, she noted. Duarte also said Sessions wouldn't commit to following DOJ standards for subpoenaing journalists, which raises a concern that the department "may conduct unnecessary or overly broad investigations of the news media."

New members of the California Public Utilities Commission raised concerns about federal changes to Lifeline eligibility as they signed off Thursday on an order to begin to align the state and federal low-income programs. The CPUC voted 5-0 to approve the item, which aligned several aspects of the programs but left the proceeding open to act later on others. The order continues discounts and reimbursements for service connection and activation charges for California wireless services, capped at $39 for two years; adds a 60-day portability freeze to reduce churn among California LifeLine providers and implements the federal 60-day port freeze for voice services, CPUC President Michael Picker said. The agency later will address remaining matters including eligibility criteria and implementing a 12-month port freeze for broadband internet access service. The FCC granted California a waiver of its Dec. 2 federal Lifeline deadline until June 1 on port freeze requirements and Oct. 31 on eligibility rules. While agreeing it’s important to harmonize the programs, the two new commissioners -- Clifford Rechtschaffen and Martha Guzman Aceves -- said they worried about the 80,000 California households that staff found could lose eligibility under the new rules. They won’t lose eligibility right away and other programs may render them eligible or otherwise fill in the gap, but Rechtschaffen plans to monitor the impact of the rule changes, he said. Aceves said she’s “particularly bothered” about eliminating eligibility criteria but hopes to work on the issue with other commissioners as the proceeding continues. Consumer groups earlier warned commissioners not to lose focus on consumers while aligning the low-income programs (see 1701110032). The new commissioners have energy backgrounds and aren’t expected to focus much on telecom matters (see 1701030043). Ex-Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, who previously led the Lifeline proceeding, attended Thursday’s meeting and gave a thumbs-up after the Lifeline vote, CPUC Picker revealed from the dais.