THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

It may actually be closing the barn door after the horses got out, but the FCC has approved new rules for Internet providers requiring explicit customer opt-in before sharing many types of customer information with third parties.

Federal regulators have approved 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.

The rules, passed Thursday in a 3-to-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission, require Internet providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, to obtain their customers' explicit consent before using or sharing that behavioral data with third parties, such as marketing firms.

Also covered by that requirement are health data, financial information, Social Security numbers and the content of emails and other digital messages. 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. The rules also force service providers to tell consumers clearly what data they collect and why, as well as to take steps to notify customers of data breaches.

“It's the consumers' information,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “How it is used should be the consumers' choice. Not the choice of some corporate algorithm.”

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.

We can now expect a two pronged approach to countering this from Big Telecom. First will be a bums rush on their favorite Republican lawmakers to pass laws overruling the FCC and the second will be a rash of lawsuits to suspend or overturn the rules if they can get them into the right courts. And in the end they will probably keep on selling our info and counting the individual settlements as a cost of doing business.