AT&T plans to watch your Web browsing; opting out could cost you $700+/year
Source: Ars Technica
If you have AT&’s gigabit Internet service and wonder why it seems so affordable, here's the reason—AT&T is boosting profits by rerouting all your Web browsing to an in-house traffic scanning platform, analyzing your Internet habits, then using the results to deliver personalized ads to the websites you visit, e-mail to your inbox, and junk mail to your front door.
In a few select areas including Austin, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri—places where AT&T competes against the $70-per-month Google Fiber—Ma Bell offers its own $70-per-month "GigaPower" fiber-to-the-home Internet access. But signing up for the deal also opts customers in to AT&T’s “Internet Preferences” program, which gives the company permission to examine each customer’s Web traffic in exchange for a price that matches Google's.
... AT&T says Internet Preferences tracks "the webpages you visit, the time you spend on each, the links or ads you see and follow, and the search terms you enter.” This helps AT&T serve ads targeted to each user based on that person’s interests. ... The personalized offers don't just appear on websites, they also come "via e-mail or through direct mail," AT&T says. "If you search for concert tickets, you may receive offers and ads related to restaurants near the concert venue. ... You can't opt out from AT&T's e-mail spam without paying the higher price.
... To find out exactly how much it costs to opt out of traffic scanning and personalized ads, you have to go through AT&T’s checkout process. GigaOm’s Stacey Higginbotham tested this last month and found that for bundled services including TV, the privacy fee was actually as high as $66 per month.
... Using the Web often entails sacrificing a bit of privacy, but AT&T’s program has alarmed even jaded privacy experts. An Internet service provider keeping track of your Web browsing in order to serve personalized ads is more concerning than a website doing so, Kenneth White, a security researcher and co-director of the Open Crypto Audit Project, told Ars.
Read more: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/atts-plan-to-watch-your-web-browsing-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Oh horrors, social justice! Actually I am a progressive and am considering Credo for exactly these reasons. I do not know what you mean by 'doesn't track' but I suspect now that you know I am on a different page, you may want to not explain. I am considering Credo for both cell phone and wifi. I have ATT now and the prices keep going up and up. Seems to be true with most that I have checked. 'Tis the old fixed income problem. Anyway, thanks for responding.
...they take away the ''opting out'' option and you just do as you're told. The only democracy remaining will be in the cemetery.
- Where equality finally reigns in death......
K&R
