FCC approves rules to protect Internet user data.

• Position: PRIVACY

In a landmark vote that will create new protections for Internet users, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved new privacy rules that prevent broadband providers from collecting and sharing digital information about individuals.

Federal officials voted 3-2 to require companies such as AT&T and Comcast to get subscriber permission before gathering and giving out data on their web browsing, app use, and location and financial details, the New York Times reported. At present, providers are able to track users unless those individuals ask them to stop doing so.

The FCC has enacted privacy rules for phone and cable providers before, but this is the first time it has decided to require high-speed Internet providers to follow privacy restrictions.

"There is a basic truth: It is the consumer's information," Tom Wheeler, FCC chairman, said of the need to protect Internet users who want more control over what companies do with their private information. "It is not the information of the network the consumer hires to deliver that information."

Privacy groups praised the new rules, saying that they will move the United States closer in line with European online privacy protections.

"For the first time, the public will be guaranteed that when they use broadband to connect to the Internet, whether on a mobile device or personal computer, they will have the ability to decide whether and how much of their information can be gathered," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

Industries that rely on online user data to collect targeted advertising, however, were not pleased by the passage of the new rules, the Times said. The Association of National Advertisers has called the regulations "unprecedented, misguided, counterproductive, and potentially extremely harmful."

The FCC rules are not...