The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has been powerfully press by a Democratic lawmaker to make correction to statements he made during a contentious oversight hearing on Wednesday while raising the possibility that he by choice lie .
Warning FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that “ lie to Congress is a federal criminal offense , ” Congresswoman Anna Eshoo wrote there existed a “ chasm ” between what Pai tell the committee and what Eshoo herself hear from other FCC official following the get together .
Eshoo has pressed Pai for details about a purportedly ongoing investigation at the commissioning into the manifestly outlaw sale of phone - location data to individual and governance with no legitimate grounds to have it ; a black market comprised of public and private businesses known only thanks to report atMotherboardand theNew York Timesthat triggered alarms up and down Capitol Hill .
Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, testifies as the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds an oversight hearing of the FCC, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, 16 March 2025.Photo: J. Scott Applewhite (AP)
How the intimate information exchange hands in these back - alley tidy sum compares in size and scale to , say , what Cambridge Analytica take on on Facebook users in 2016 , is in the end made irrelevant by the fact that it ’s a thousand metre more sensitive . This is data mean for hunting people down . In the most usurious event document in the press so far , a Motherboard newsman managed to give a bounty hunter $ 300 to put a trace on a cellphone in New York . The coordinate he received proved precise up to around a quarter nautical mile . As one Democrat on the FCC put it , this trade in Americans ’ location data is “ a personal and national certificate proceeds that affects every American with a cell phone . ”
There ’s little grounds that it ’s being treated as such . lawgiver on Wednesday openly scold Pai over his handling of the investigating , which is thought to be near the end of its first class . ( It stay indecipherable when the investigation was actually start out . ) During inquiring , he refused outright to say whether he ’d apportion basic information about the probe with the FCC ’s two popular commissioner , Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks .
“ Can you tell us today that you ’re going to share entropy with two full - fledged members of the commission ? ” Eshoo asked at one point . “ You ’re pronounce you ca n’t evidence us , but will you differentiate them ? ”
“ Congresswoman , this is not a ‘ yes or no ’ question , ” he said .
Throughout , Pai was insistent that he ’d never recoup information at any clip from his two popular workfellow . At one peak , he simply said he was “ not aware ” of any of the requests for data made by Starks . “ Is there any information that Mr. Starks would like to have that he is not able to get ? If he wanted it , he could have it , is that what I hear you say ? ” Rep. Morgan Griffith , a Virginia Republican , asked him .
“ I ’m not aware , ” Pai answered . “ But I ’d be happy to spill with him about it . ”
But Rosenworcel and Starks have both , on separate occasion , requested access to the “ letters of query ” sent out by the FCC ’s Enforcement Bureau at the investigating ’s kickoff . Both were repeatedly stonewall . Sources with knowledge of the requests severalize Gizmodo that they were baffled by the chairperson ’s response , for one reason in exceptional : At an FCC Open Commission Meeting on January 30 , Rosenworceltold a group of reporterswhile live - cyclosis on the agency ’s internet site : “ I ’ve been told there ’s an investigation , but I ’ve enquire the enforcement dresser for the letter of enquiry that start investigation , and they have not yet been provided to me . I ’d wish to see them . ”
https://gizmodo.com/phone-companies-say-theyve-mostly-stopped-selling-you-1834815693
Having declared himself oblivious , Pai then seek to shield himself at the disbursal of his colleague , Starks , whom he claimed was creditworthy for keep himself in the dark . Pai articulate that in February , just days after Starks was sworn in , he pay for the newly - confirmed commissioner to take control of the investigation . It fell on Starks to explain Wednesday the reason that he had turned down the offering . While considering it , he had requested a briefing to estimate the investigation ’s progress . “ What I heard at that briefing did not give me confidence that that case was moving along quickly enough , ” he say .
The briefing itself pose off multiple red flag , according to source with noesis of events surrounding the investigation . By the goal of it , more question had been raised than answered . For one , the investigating was n’t as far along as he believe it should have been , give all the time that had fail by , sources said . ( As Pai noted while endeavor to explicate why he ’d chosen him in the first topographic point , Starks , a former Justice Department attorney and assistant chief in the FCC ’s Enforcement Bureau , is an expert in how investigations such as this should unfold . ) He left the briefing with the opinion that the proceedings had progressed too slowly .
Pai ’s endeavor to unload the typeface on Starks , then a new name Democrat , whose office was still free of article of furniture , raised yet another red flag . There is no chemical mechanism giving Pai the power to delegate his sanction to another commissioner . Some staff member viewed the fling as bizarre , or just profoundly out or keeping , said a senior Democratic aide .
That an enforcement investigation is being conduct under a shroud of secrecy is not itself surprising , but even the most canonic details of this one stay a total mystery to not only the public , but every commissioner not a member of the chair ’s company , at a minimum . Neither Starks nor Rosenworcel can even say , for instance , when the probe was officially launched .
Statutorily , the FCC has one year in most type from the day of the month of a violation to come forth a notice of apparent financial obligation . Neither commissioner can say whether the legislative act of limitation has expired on any particular infraction . But notably , more than a year has passed since Senator Ron Wyden firstwrote to the FCCdemanding this investigation take place . ANew York Times exposeabout a byplay that sold earphone - tracking service to state police enforcement official without a warrant turned a year old last week . ( Pai , by the way , represented that business — Securus Technologies — seven years ago while working in secret practice . )
If the object of an investigation is tractable , the statute of limitations can be forgo , or at least extended . A tolling agreement , as it ’s call in , would allow the commission to further regard grounds or carry negotiations . But no one can say whether there ’s one of those in place .
“ It ’s not clear when the legislative act of limitation runs out , ” said Joshua Stager , senior insurance policy counsel at Open Technology Institute . “ The conduct may have cover beyond May 2018 . Moreover , the FCC may have found a manner to toll the legislative act of limitations . ”
Added Stager : “ None of this diminishes the urging of resolving the investigation . The administration ’s laissez - faire attitude toward geolocation data is putting lives at risk . This issue has mature from shady stalking apps five years ago to a full - blown ‘ salary - to - caterpillar tread ’ industriousness today . Domestic violence shelters have been raising alarm about this for year . The FCC needs to playact , and Pai needs to step up and lead . ”
On Wednesday , Gizmodo need the FCC to clear up whether Pai was in fact aware that Starks and Rosenworcel had requested copy of the enforcement bureau ’s letters . It was also asked if any limitations had expired and , if so , had it secured agreement that would allow the investigation to proceed . It did n’t know or respond to either question .
“ It ’s been more than a yr since I first alerted the FCC to wireless carriers ’ outrageous drill of sell Americans ’ locating data to shady middlemen , ” Senator Wyden said . “ Chairman Pai ’s failure to take fleet action against his wireless immune carrier friends is not a surprise , but it is yet another mansion that he just does not care about protecting Americans ’ privacy . ”
you’re able to read a full copy of Congresswoman Eshoo ’s letterhere .
Ajit Pai
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