• by Laurie Sullivan , August 3, 2016

Comcast, owned by NBCUniversal, could sell search and Web data to advertisers in exchange for giving consumers discounts on services.

In a meeting this week with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), officials from Comcast argued that it and other Internet providers should not be prohibited from trading discounts for data, per one report.

In the regulatory filing initially pointed to by MediaPost, Comcast argues that the company has partnered with other companies that enhance consumer data privacy and that the Commission should not prevent Comcast and others from providing more value to consumers for exchange of information similar to the business model the Internet was built on.

It turns out that in some parts of the United States, Internet provides like AT&T offer deals on broadband prices in exchange for tracking Web history, search activity and other online behavior,

Tracking search behavior will give Comcast an edge similar to Google, Bing and Yahoo, which use the data to target advertisements. 

In 2013, The Washington Post wrote a piece detailing how AT&T struck a deal with consumers to save them more than $350 annually on service in exchange for sharing their data.

For $70 per month, some AT&T customers could get the same service as those paying $99 a month if they join the Internet Preferences program that allows the telecom provide to use the consumer's browsing behavior such as search terms entered and Web pages visited.

Comcast now wants the ability to offer these types of plans too. In the meeting Monday with the FCC, officials from the cable company argued that it and other Internet providers should have the ability to trade discounts for data.

It's not clear whether Comcast has plans to roll out a discount program, but the FCC is set to finalize its privacy rules for Internet providers later this year.