FCC rules would restrict use of consumers' private data.

• Position: PRIVACY

Internet service providers (ISPs) that provide broadband Internet access service to consumers have extraordinarily broad access "to very sensitive and very personal information that could threaten a person's financial security, reveal embarrassing or even harmful details of medical history, or disclose to prying eyes the intimate details of interest, physical presence, and fears," according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

ISPs can follow their customer's Internet activity by collecting individualized data and develop highly specific profiles of where each user goes and what services are acquired upon arrival at their Internet destinations, according to The New York Law Journal. That is why the FCC adopted, by a 3-to-2 vote, Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that, if adopted, will address consumers' rights to have notice, choice, and security when their private information is used by broadband providers.

The FCC said in a statement that the NPRM proposes rules that would give broadband customers "the tools they need to make informed decisions about how their information is used by their ISPs" and whether and for what purposes ISPs may share their customers' information with third parties.

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The FCC's proposal allows for certain data collection that is necessary to provide...