Controlling your online identity is a really big deal – for a lot of reasons. Among other things, no one wants to be the victim of fraud, or constant spamming, or unwanted behavioral advertising.

It is probably no surprise that the National Broadband Plan contains several recommendations to Congress and the FTC for regulatory action in this area. Where these regulations come out will affect many things (online advertising is obviously one thing that will be affected).

Here is a partial list of the things the Broadband Plan is recommending in the privacy space:

Congress and the FTC should clarify the relationship between users and their online profiles by regulating the obligations of firms that collect personal data have to consumers in terms of data sharing, collection, storage, safeguarding and accountability.

 

Congress should consider helping spur the development of trusted “identity providers” to help consumers in managing their online data to maximize privacy and security.

 

The FCC and the FTC should jointly develop principles to require that customers provide informed consent before their information is shared with third parties.

 

The FTC and the Federal government should put additional resources to work to combat identity theft and related problems.

 

The Federal government should investigate establishing a national framework for digital goods and services taxation.

These rules, when adopted, will affect the entire U.S. online community. If you are working on a social network product, and your business plan involves monetizing personal information about the users of your social network, guess what: regulations yet to be adopted may make or break you. If you are starting a company in the online security space, these regulations yet to be adopted are likely to have some thing to say about what your product must (or can’t) do. If you are not using a opt in system right now, the upcoming regulations could cause you to revamp your processes.