FCC plans privacy rules on Internet

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators Thursday proposed a set of privacy rules for Internet service providers that would significantly curb the ability of companies like Comcast and Verizon to share data about their customers’ online activities with advertisers without permission from users.

In the proposal, before the Federal Communications Commission, the agency’s chairman, Tom Wheeler, called for broadband service providers to disclose clearly how data may be collected about users’ online browsing and other activities. The plan also called for the companies to bolster the security of customer data.

The proposal, if approved, would establish privacy rules for the companies that manage the traffic of the Web and would create some of the strongest privacy regulations for any segment of the technology and telecommunications industries. They represent the first major regulatory action involving broadband providers after the FCC’s declaration last year that high-speed Internet carriers should be treated like utilities.

The proposed regulations would put broadband providers under stronger privacy oversight than Internet companies like Google and Facebook. Those companies are monitored by the Federal Trade Commission, whose ability to create specific privacy rules is limited.

The FCC will vote on the proposal on March 31 and then take public comments, in what will be a monthslong process before final rules are considered.