On October 21, the FCC announced that its Privacy and Data Protection Task Force formed additional partnerships with the Attorneys General of Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Delaware, and Indiana. These new partnerships join existing collaborations with Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The formal agreements, known as Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), enable federal and state enforcement leaders to share expertise, resources and coordinate efforts in privacy, data protection and cybersecurity enforcement.

The FCC shared these MOUs affirm the “close and common legal interests in working cooperatively to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute or otherwise take enforcement action in relation to privacy, data protection, or cybersecurity issues” that it shares with these state attorneys general. The partnership will benefit both the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and state investigators since they perform similar investigative steps. As the FCC noted, these privacy and data protection partnerships provide critical resources for building cases and coordinating efforts to protect consumers and businesses nationwide.