Upcoming Dates:
August 13 |
USAC webinar on cybersecurity for E-rate and EPC beginners (registration). |
August 15 |
USAC webinar on Wi-Fi hotspot eligibility (registration). |
August 16 |
Form 486 deadline for FY 2023 Wave 52. More generally, the Form 486 deadline is 120 days from the FCDL date, or the service start date (typically July 1st), whichever is later. Upcoming Form 486 deadlines are:
Wave 53 08/23/2024
Wave 54 09/10/2024
Wave 55 09/23/2024
The first Form 486 deadline for FY 2024, for applicants funded on or before July 1st, will be October 29th. |
August 20 |
USAC webinar to review the information to be required in the Cybersecurity Pilot’s initial application, the Form 484 Part One (registration). |
August 22 |
Introductory USAC webinar for service providers new to the E-rate program (registration). |
August 27 |
USAC webinar with an overview of the Open Data system (registration). |
August 29 |
USAC Open Data training on creating reports and visualization (registration). |
August 29 |
Invoice deadline for ECF Window 3 applications.** |
August 30 |
Due date for public comments on the FCC’s proposed Eligible Services List (“ESL”) for FY 2025 (DA 24-743). Reply comments are due September 16th. |
August 30 |
Our estimate of Form 470 availability for Funding Year 2025 (see our newsletter of July 15). |
U.S. Sues TikTok over Children’s Privacy:
The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), together with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), filed a civil suit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). As summarized in the DOJ press release, “COPPA prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13, unless they provide notice to and obtain consent from those children’s parents. It also requires website operators to delete personal information collected from children at their parents’ request.”
This month’s suit follows a 2019 government suit against TikTok’s predecessor that resulted in a court order requiring the company to undertake specific actions to comply with COPPA. Since then, according to the DOJ’s suit, “TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. The defendants collected and retained a wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents.” Reportedly, this occurred even with accounts that were created in “Kids Mode” (a special version of TikTok intended for children under 13).
For its part, the FTC is seeking penalties in excess of $50,000 per violation per day that, should TikTok be found liable, could total billions of dollars. TikTok is already facing fines from the European Union and in Britian over its handing of children’s data.
Meanwhile, in Congress, the Senate has just passed a bill to expand the data protection provisions of COPPA to cover teenagers up to the age of seventeen. Enactment would require approval by the House of Representatives, currently in recess until September.
How USF Impacts the States:
As a part of the FCC’s response to the recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the Universal Service Fund (“USF”) was unconstitutional (see our newsletter of July 29), the FCC released a state-by-state impact summary of funding each state has recently received from E-rate and the other three USF programs. The summary notes that the recent 5th Circuit’s decision breaks with two earlier decisions by the 6th and 11th Circuit courts and that FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel has vowed to “pursue all available avenues for review.”