The Federal Communications Commission recently rolled back privacy rules that would have prevented Internet service providers (ISPs) from collecting and selling user browser data without obtaining user permission. Troubled by the change, local officials in Seattle, Wash., passed a rule of their own that requires cable Internet vendors to get permission before using customer Web browsing history or other Internet usage data. The ISPs also have to provide their privacy statements to the city every year.
The rule only applies to cable, not wireless or satellite ISPs, and it really only affects three companies that do business in Seattle: Comcast, CenturyLink and ISP Wave.
