But that doesn't sit well with some industry groups. To identify an outfit like Reed Elsevier's ChoicePoint as a data broker might be a relatively straightforward classification, but what about the growing number of online companies that rely on ads tied to consumer information as their primary source of revenue?

"I think we need to realize that the FTC has given great praise to self regulation with one hand, and we want to make sure that they don't take that away by having an overly broad definition of data broker," said Mike Zaneis, senior vice president and general counsel at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group representing the online ad industry.

"In this day and age, in the digital economy, we have to realize that every publisher, every marketer, every ad agency, every advertising network, every analytics firm that is operating on the Internet transacts in data," he added. "We have to understand that in this information economy, data is the new currency."

in CIO's Government Drilldown.