On Thursday, three of the nation’s largest ISPs at the hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee promised to follow an opt-in approach of using ISP data for the purpose of behavioral advertising. 

It was clarified by AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon, that they had not been using any NebuAd style ad targeting systems, and further reported that if in case they wanted to do so, they needed a proper and full fledged consent form the consumers. 

This comes as a remarkable change from the ISPs that maintained trials with NebuAd gear during the starting of this year and were later pulled by Congress to talk about it. 

These ISPs actually were dependent upon an opt-out mechanism, which never quite made sense in light of the recurrent declaration that "consumers will love our new ad-serving technology that tracks where they surf because it brings them more targeted ads!" A question arises that why did the companies participated in making the mechanisms opt-out?  

This question was even imposed by some of the letters from Congress lately and this actually created a really tough situation for ISPs and thus they stopped all their trials. 

However, in today’s Senate hearing, AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner all displayed an interest in making industry consensus on behavioral targeting that includes positive approval from consumers.

The entire proceeding is evocative of the current government approach to network neutrality, i.e. not to pass a detailed FCC regulations, but put down some general principles and make it clear to companies when they cross an unacceptable line.