Privacy Groups Concerned About Some Proposals on Contraband Cellphones

The FCC needs to move with care as it examines ways to fight contraband cellphones in correctional facilities, said the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “We share the interest of the Commission in protecting the welfare of facility administrators, law enforcement authorities, and the general public,” the groups said. “Mandates for hard kill switches and proprietary technology will create new security vulnerabilities, and the lack of judicial review within the kill switch process will violate established protections for due process.” If "a device is misidentified as contraband and subsequently disabled, the owner of the device will be permanently deprived of their device without any warning or explanation,” said the filing in docket 13-111. Chairman Ajit Pai said recently he will appoint a task force to look at technological solutions (see 1802080035).