Successful Negotiations of EU-U.S. Privacy Shield

The new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework is a major achievement for privacy and for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. It strengthens our important partnership with the European Union and shows the world how we can solve problems together. The Privacy Shield will end uncertainty for many EU and U.S. businesses and consumers, and strengthen our economies. It will also help expand the digital economy by ensuring that thousands of European and American businesses and millions of individuals can continue to access services online.

The Privacy Shield strengthens cooperation between the Federal Trade Commission and EU Data Protection Authorities, providing independent, vigorous enforcement of the data protection. EU individuals will have access to multiple avenues to resolve concerns, including through alternative dispute resolution at no cost to the individual. Additionally, companies will now commit to participate in arbitration as a matter of last resort to ensure that EU individuals who still have concerns will have the opportunity to seek legal remedies. The Privacy Shield includes new contractual privacy protections and oversight for data transferred by participating companies to third parties or processed by those companies’ agents.

The Department of Commerce is have been actively engaging with the private sector to discuss Privacy Shield in greater detail since Commerce and the European Commission made the full text of the Privacy Shield available to the public.

If you would like more information on this issue, please contact J.P. Kill at KillJP@state.gov.

U.S.-Mexico Telecom Regulators Finalize Two-Year Workplan

Officials of the United States and Mexico met in Washington, D.C., on February 4-5 to discuss spectrum management issues along the common border. Officials from the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) and Secretaria de Comunicaciones Y Transportes represented the Mexican government. Officials from the FCC, NTIA, USTR and U.S. Department of State represented the United States.

The participants developed a two-year workplan to update or create protocols in 18 spectrum bands, with a focus on modernizing outdated protocols dedicated to technology no longer in use. In addition, the participants discussed Mexico’s progress toward implementing its Mutual Recognition Agreement with the United States, how the two countries can better facilitate a borderless network concept to benefit consumers in both countries and continued collaboration on regional policy issues.

The United States and Mexico discussed how the two countries can work together in support of the Global Connect Initiative, launched by Secretary Kerry in December 2015. The initiative seeks to connect the next 1.5 billion people to the Internet by the year 2020. Mexico discussed the progress it has made in connecting public spaces through its Mexico Conectado program and the plans for its new national wholesale mobile network, Red Compartida, which aims to provide nationwide wholesale broadband mobile service using 90 MHz of the 700 MHz band.

The two countries reiterated their commitment to continue to work together to maximize their precious spectrum resources to provide increased Internet connectivity and advanced wireless service to the people of both countries. The countries plan to continue its schedule of semi-annual meetings with the next meeting to be held in Mexico City.

If you would like more information on this issue, please contact Susan Ritchie at RitchieSM@state.gov.

Preparations for WTSA-16 Move Forward

The date and venue for the 2016 World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-16) has been approved by a majority of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Member States and now confirmed to take place in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia, from October 25 to November 3, 2016. The WTSA is held every four years and defines the next period of study for the ITU Standardization sector (ITU-T). The duties of the WTSA are laid out in the ITU Constitution, which charges that the WTSA shall be convened “to consider specific matters related to telecommunication standardization”. WTSA will also review working methods including approval processes, the work program and the structure of study groups.

The United States will start its preparatory process in a two phased approach. The first phase will start around the middle of March and the second phase will start on April 6. Why a two phase approach? The Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (TSAG) held February 1-5 revealed the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) Director’s vision of study group restructuring. Several on the U.S. delegation voiced their concern with the Director’s vision, which led to informal discussions with the private sector on ways to efficiently and effectively minimize redundancy and moderate the number of ineffective study groups within the standardization sector. Realizing that the restructuring effort will be an intricate and complicated activity fraught with complex issues, the first phase of the U.S. preparatory process for WTSA will deal with all the other WTSA related issues. The U.S. preparatory meetings for WTSA will be announced on the CIP listservs.

If you would like more information on this issue, please contact Franz Zichy at ZichyFJ@state.gov.

CIP EXPLAINS: The Internet of Things

The concept of “Internet of Things” (IoT) refers broadly to the many sensing, computation, and communication devices that can be associated with physical objects as wide-ranging as refrigerators, cars and pacemakers, and networked together to form applications and services. Consumers and businesses all stand to benefit from efficiencies that result from both smart machine-to-machine communication and smart use of the data they generate. Cisco forecasts 50 billion internet-connected devices by 2020, with many expected to be machine-to-machine or IoT connections.

The prominence of IoT applications is raising policy issues, among them questions of when and where to develop standards intended to foster interoperability. IoT techniques are embodied in many diverse physical devices, and interface standards will be needed. For example, a smart-thermostat application may wish to use data from different sources or companies, such as environmental and thermostat data. While the value of interoperability is clear, the market has not yet converged on the best standardization approach. The diversity of potential IoT applications and device technologies leads many to conclude that it would be detrimental to the IoT ecosystem to tie it prematurely to burdensome or conflicting standards, particularly those of a one-size-fits-all nature. Furthermore, the fast technology innovation in this domain may mean that early approaches will be quickly surpassed. The U.S. believes market-driven approaches to interoperability will ensure that standards promote a dynamic IoT ecosystem.

IoT standards are being discussed in a range of standards bodies and consortia, ranging from IEEE to oneM2M. ITU-T recently launched Study Group 20 (SG20) to study standardization issues for IoTs as well as their applications in Smart Cities and Communities. The US sent delegations to the first two meetings of SG20 (October, 2015 and January, 2016) with an eye towards shaping the standardization discussion in ways that allow the IoT ecosystem to maintain its rich dynamism. We welcome input from stakeholders (e.g. readers of this newsletter) regarding US strategy and engagement on ITU-T SG20, and we are planning an upcoming ITAC meeting to discuss IoT policy issues more broadly.

Ambassador Sepulveda leads ICT Delegation to Cuba