By Sapna Maheshwari and Cecilia Kang
In recent years, companies like Verizon and AT&T have made no secret of their ambitions to build online advertising businesses that can take on the behemoths of Silicon Valley.
But those plans, and the billions of dollars that have been invested in them, are in peril after federal officials approved broad new privacy rules that will limit the extent to which companies can collect and use digital information about individuals.
AT&T's and Verizon's hopes of collecting and analyzing customer data to sell advertising may be dashed if they have to ask customers' permission.
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