The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday dismissed a petition that would have required some of Web’s largest firms, including Facebook, Google and Netflix, to honor “Do Not Track” signals from consumers’ browsers.

“The Commission has been unequivocal in declaring that it has no intent to regulate edge providers,” the FCC declared in the Nov. 6 order (download PDF) that dismissed demands from the California-based consumer advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog.

Edge providers, as defined in the petition filed in June by Consumer Watchdog, are those that provide “content, applications, services, and devices accessed over or connected to broadband Internet access service.” The petition (download PDF) singled out Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pandora and YouTube as examples.

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