On Friday, the Senate blocked the implementation of rules that would have restricted internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon’s ability to monetize users’ internet browsing history and other data. This doesn’t in itself mark a sea change—the rule in question wasn’t due to go into effect for nearly a year. But it does preempt what would have become a major obstacle to ISPs’ efforts to meld their network services with precisely-targeted advertising.
Most Americans who use services like Facebook or Google are by now familiar, and by and large comfortable, with the basic idea of targeted advertising. ISPs now have (barring some outlier scenarios) the go-ahead to get in on that game, which could become a major new revenue stream — and potentially serious competition for current web-advertising giants.
There are some technical limits to the data that ISPs can gather. And Google and Facebook, because they gather such detailed…