FCC Filing System Changes May Be Big, Include Authentication or Spam Reduction

Staff is entering the second phase of a lengthy process to update the FCC's main filing system. After spending about a year on internal communications and other early work, agency employees are now poised to speak with external stakeholders. The update may include ways to help prevent the agency's filing system from being overwhelmed with fraudulent or spam comments that could slow it down, and it could register users, officials told the agency's Consumer Advisory Committee. Unlike past filing system revamps, this one may have bigger changes, staff told CAC.

Also at Monday's committee meeting, the panel OK'd recommendations to the regulator on carriers offering automated ways to block unwanted or illegal robocalls. It would have telecom providers "clearly disclose the types of calls that could be blocked as well as the risks that a legitimate call could be blocked" and offer a way for customers to opt out of the program, said Brian Young of the National Consumers League, presenting to the full body a robocall working group's proposals. Consumers would be able to manage their participation in such programs, and be notified via multiple methods of being able opt out, he said. "Consumers should be appropriately notified that a call is blocked." They also would be able to easily report when numbers are erroneously blocked.

The FCC would work with the FTC and trade groups, industry stakeholders, libraries and broadcasters on the rollout, and use social media to help publicize call management and how to choose to not participate, Young said. The call-blocking lists would have exemptions for so-called "critical calls" that "remain as narrow as possible and include government numbers only." That would let 911 centers call consumers, and federal and other agencies to make emergency calls, Young said.

Like much of the rest of the meeting, scheduled to take four hours but ended after a little more than three (see 1908160058), the robocall-related vote proceeded quickly with little friction. There was scant discussion of the recommendation before approval. OK was unanimous, said CAC Chair and American Consumer Institute CEO Stephen Pociask to wide applause from CAC members.

The portion of the meeting getting the most questions was on the electronic comment filing system. We couldn't access the robocall proposal.

The recommendation just approved "will be made public on the CAC webpage after it is presented to the Chairman and Commissioners," emailed an agency spokesperson. "The same is true for the working group report." The page is here.

ECFS

These coming ECFS changes may be bigger than previous updates. "This time, we are actually going to create a newly developed system," said FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch. "It will be tailored to current concerns and issues." That's "rather than upgrading something that’s old." She called it "a great opportunity to develop something that is a new system." It's expected to be "a significant upgrade," Dortch added.

There's a focus on allowing more or better authentication, automation, ease of use, security, document searching and other improvements. Users could have the option to register, with "the idea being that it will be convenient for people who frequently file" to sign in, said Dortch. She likened it to online shopping. The FCC plans to use CAPTCHA or other authentication "to distinguish from machine input or spam, which has happened in the past," Dortch said, "and to keep pace with technology." One attendee hopes the agency won't require online visitors to select images within a block of graphics, a concern Dortch said she understands. "We can certainly improve on our search capabilities, and that is one of the major focuses of what we hope to do with our new system," she replied to a query from CAC Vice Chair Debra Berlyn of the National Consumers League.

Responding to other questions, staff wouldn't commit to further specific actions. When asked about real-time public posting, as happens at some other agencies, Dortch said it will be considered. A two-hour delay gives filers time to correct mistakes, she told us. "We want to make sure that we’re timely, but that it gives the filer an opportunity to file what they intend to file." CAC head Pociask likened it to a "buffer." FCC spokespeople didn't answer some of our follow-up queries.

Anti-fraud tech mightn't entirely stop spam. "There’s a balance between authentication and allowing people to freely file without having a chilling effect," said Associate Secretary-Information Resources Sheryl Segal. "We have to be careful to not inhibit people from filing. And that sometimes means that we get filings that are sometimes frivolous, to be kind, and we rely on the discretion of attorneys" at the agency "to differentiate" among them, she said. FCC employees hope the reboot will "minimize those kinds of filings," Segal said. Another upgrade will let the public "offload" data from the agency and analyze it, Dortch said. "How can we make it more user-friendly with this data that we collect every day?"

Phase 1 of the ECFS update took about a year of secretary's office, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) and IT experts collaborating "in what we call our discovery stage" to document what the system is used for, Dortch said. Such work included all bureaus and offices, she added. "We documented how people internally use the system." Those working on the initiative "had a clear understanding of our core functions" to "make sure we have everything incorporated into the new system," she said. "That has taken an extended amount of time."

The current phase 2 "includes external stakeholders" and will lead to a system to "best allow us to serve the public," Dortch said. "We will be hosting in October and early November roundtable sessions" for such input, she said. "We really want to have a comprehensive approach, so we want your feedback." Some attendees provided that. CAC members can participate in such work. Agency officials wouldn't commit to making such roundtables open to the public.

Robocalls and Scams

On robocalls, CGB Deputy Chief Mark Stone noted the bureau's staff has “been very busy” on such actions since the last CAC gathering in June (see 1906030008). Besides working with this advisory group, CGB has been cooperating with the North American Numbering Council, Stone said.

The bureau may work with CAC on call blocking solutions and their applicability, said CGB staffer Karen Schroeder. “We recognize that some of this data is difficult” to obtain, she said. On things like volume of robocalls across a network, there may be different measurements depending on “what exactly you call a robocall,” she added. “What we’re probably going to have to do with this report is gather the data that we can find, recognizing that we probably won’t have a definitive answer for each question.”

A nascent area of telecom fraud is what's being called port-out scams. That's when someone without subscriber authorization convinces a cellphone service provider the caller's someone else, and gets that legitimate customer's information transferred, noted another CGB front-office official, Associate Chief Eduard Bartholme. Such a scheme "plays into the rise of two-factor authentication," he added. "We put out some consumer education" information, he noted. "For the small group of people it's happening to, it can be incredibly impactful."

An FCC webpage on a "porting-out scam" created Monday offered tips on how to avoid being hit. It says a cellphone number may be one's "most important financial number" -- perhaps more so than a Social Security or a bank account number.

"If the scam is successful, the phone number will be ported to a different mobile device or service account set up by the scammer," the FCC says. "This typically begins a race where the scammer, by receiving the victim’s private texts and calls, tries to reset the access credentials for as many of the victim’s financial and social media accounts as possible." The fraudster could drain a victim’s bank account or hold for ransom access to one's social media accounts.

FCC Economist

Meanwhile, the FCC’s new chief economist has his sights set on potentially helping with broadband data collection, a coming high-cost USF fund, C band and other issues. Those are “some of the things that have sort of caught my attention,” said Jeffrey Prince, an Indiana University professor of business economics and public policy (see page 1).

The FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is “a big project that is going on’” with “a lot of ongoing issues there,” the professor told CAC. More generally, he said the FCC could accelerate the white papers it produces. Prince thinks “there’s real interest at the commission to produce more of these.” He wants to be involved with some during his yearlong tenure that began recently (see 1908280049) and “to encourage some of the younger staff to produce some.”

Having economists concentrated in the new Office of Economics and Analytics instead of spread throughout the agency has “actually made my life relatively easy to get started,” Prince told CAC. He said he's ready to “get my hands dirty” and start work. Prince was responding to a query from NCTA Associate General Counsel and CAC member Steven Morris on how OEA changes the chief economist’s role.

CGB Chief Patrick Webre later said digital data collection efforts are a collaborative effort to provide more accurate U.S. broadband data.