The NCTA is requesting the FCC to make email the primary transom for the cable industry to notify its customers about privacy issues.
According to Multichannel News, Diane Burstein, deputy general counsel for the cable industry lobbying group, lobbed a call to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn last week, detailing specific needs for her constituency.
The FCC, which can’t say no to the cable industry, has already signaled that it would vote on a request by the NCTA and the American Cable Association that allows cable companies to send out privacy notifications through email rather than via paper and U.S. post.
But the NCTA wants to make email the default mechanism, rather than have to ask customers, through snail mail, whether it’s OK to email them privacy docs.
RELATED: NCTA survey: 61% of Americans support ‘net neutrality’
"Requiring opt-in consent before permitting cable operators to send the notices via electronic means would essentially negate the intended benefits of the petition,” Burstein told Clyburn.
Burstein cited reduced waste and energy consumption, as well as conserving water, as benefits from not having to rely on notification through the U.S. Postal Service.
"The record indicates that customers increasingly prefer electronic communications to ‘snail mail,’" Burstein added.