Thank you, FCC. 

With Thursday’s vote, the FCC is seeking to bring Internet providers’ conduct in line with that of traditional telephone companies that have historically obeyed strict prohibitions on the unauthorized use or sale of call data.

Verizon’s acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo are both aimed at monetizing Internet usage beyond the straightforward sale of broadband access. With greater insights into customer behavior, the company could market additional services or content to its wireless subscribers as part of a bundle, policy analysts say. That arrangement could allow Verizon to effectively earn money twice from the same subscriber — once for the data plan, and then again when the customer consumes Verizon-affiliated content.

A company such as AT&T, which may soon own Time Warner’s stable of premium content channels, could even quadruple-dip. The firm could charge not only for Internet access and subscriptions to HBO’s $15-a-month streaming video app, but also earn revenue from ads shown on a rapidly growing number of screens on its network and from selling its user data to third-party marketers.

Under the rules approved Thursday, Verizon could use a wireless subscriber’s usage history to recommend purchasing a larger mobile data plan. It could also use the customer’s information — without asking consent — to market its home Internet service, Verizon FiOS, even though FiOS is a separate product operated by a different part of the company.

But Verizon would have to allow consumers the chance to opt out of having their data shared with other Verizon businesses that do not sell communications services, such as AOL or Yahoo, according to the rules.

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http://pandawhale.com/post/73701/broadband-providers-will-need-permission-to-collect-private-data