Federal regulators have approved today unprecedented new rules to ensure broadband providers do not abuse their customers’ app usage and browsing history, mobile location data and other sensitive personal information generated while using the Internet.
As The Washington Post reports, the rules require internet providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, to obtain customers’ explicit consent before using or sharing behavioral data with third parties, such as marketing firms.
The Federal Communications Commission passed the rules in a 3-2 vote.
Also covered by that requirement are health data, financial information, Social Security numbers and the content of emails and other digital messages.
“It’s the consumers’ information,” says FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “How it is used should be the consumers’ choice. Not the choice of some corporate algorithm.”
The measure allows the FCC to impose the opt-in rule on other types of information in the future, but certain types of data, such as a customer’s IP address and device identifier, are not subject to the opt-in requirement.
In the near term, what consumers see and experience on the Web is unlikely to change as a result of the rules; targeted advertising has become a staple of the internet economy and will not be going away.
But the regulations may lead to new ways in which consumers can control their internet providers’ business practices. That could mean dialogue boxes, new websites with updated privacy policies or other means of interaction with companies.
The regulations come as internet providers race to turn their customers’ behavioral data into opportunities to sell targeted advertising. No longer content to be the conduits to websites, social media and online video, broadband companies increasingly view the information they collect on users as a source of revenue in itself.
