Internet Service Providers Can’t Use Targeted Adverts Without Customers Permission

When you go online, you will often find yourself surrounded by targeted adverts that seem to want you browsing every site and buying every product on the planet. More often than not you will find that these products and sites somehow know about what you’ve been looking at. Targeted adverts have long been the pain of many people, with information about you being used in selling you everything under the sun. This may change though with Internet Service Providers being told they can’t target ads without customers permission in recent legislation.

ISP’s are the central point for all your internet traffic, with everything you do online going through their systems. From your location in the world to the very content of your websites (including medical or financial details). While the new legislation, targeted adverts wouldn’t be illegal but instead the data used to create them would be more heavily controlled, not by the companies but by the people the data is about.

AT&T currently do this, offering a $29 discount per month if their customers agree to data collection and targeted ads. With the Federal Communications Commission looking to hear the public’s opinion about being charged for not opting into targeted ads, you may get a little bit of control back over your details.