Republican Red-Tape Purge May Help AT&T, Comcast Use Data

  • Congress considering rollback of FCC’s online privacy rule
  • Broadband companies can use data to compete for online ads
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
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The war on regulations has a new target: an Obama-era privacy rule that internet-service providers say would make it harder to compete in the burgeoning market for online ads touting everything from shoes to vacations.

Republicans in Congress are moving to kill a requirement that companies such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. get a subscriber’s consent before using and sharing sensitive information about internet and app use.