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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAT&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 reasonAT&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, Missouriplaces where AT&T competes against the $70-per-month Google FiberMa 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&Ts Internet Preferences program, which gives the company permission to examine each customers 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 persons 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&Ts checkout process. GigaOms 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&Ts 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/
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Initech
(100,431 posts)Google's TOS isn't any better - but this kind of privacy breach is alarming no matter who you're dealing with.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)I had to get a gmail account to log on to youtube. They started sending me about 8-10 spams a day. At first I just marked them as spam with their filter. That got rid of about half of them. Then I started forwarding ALL their spam to abuse@gmail.com. It ceased. Now I get maybe 1 spam email a month.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I have a gmail account, for unimportant stuff. Actually I get very little spam on it, and get zero spam on my ISP mail account.
It appears that my old fashioned ISP, which I often complain about, is also not doing a lot of tracking.
Woot!
arcane1
(38,613 posts)villager
(26,001 posts)Surely there are ways customers can make it difficult on the "good folks" at ATT...
Jon82
(92 posts)"Data collected shows that all their traffic goes to one place. Boss, which ads do we recommend for that?"
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)of their predicament AFTER they are caught, by wring an amendment to the law they violated, covering the period of their criminal activity, that makes their crime not a crime anymore.
NOW that they are free to spy on the public apparently, they can PROFIT from SELLING you back your privacy??
Congress helps them steal your privacy, then they sell it back.
Is that what they mean by 'FREEDOM isn't FREE'?
I never took that literally!
What a country! Land of the FREE, if you can afford it!
Rex
(65,616 posts)started doing what AT&T is declaring they are doing (which means they started a longer time ago than Google). BOTH companies get major support from the NSA/CIA security apparatus.
Lost privacy decades ago.
Rex
(65,616 posts)I knew I had zero privacy long long ago. Of course you can always serf incognito, but your ISP still knows.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)I'd even say it's win-win for all
for all your daily browser use, tailored ads make more sense than random ads
if you want to browse privately, as villager said, Tor/VPN are free technical solutions
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)LOL.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)(while still actually spying on us)
NBachers
(17,351 posts)oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)Does Credo do this or are they hooked into this? Thanks if you know. Appreciate help.
Romeo.lima333
(1,127 posts)they sometimes sponsor the norman goldman show
http://www.credomobile.com/
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)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.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)C Moon
(12,260 posts)My boss threatened my working from home situation if I didn't get it fixed by the next day (he was a control freak assholebelieve me).
I called AT&T and tried to get it repaired.
They transferred me to 5 different people, and I ended up with the first person I'd talked to initially. Will he go 'round in circles?
I told the gentleman to and cancel the servicefor which he had to transfer me again (luckily there was only 1 or 2 months left in the contract); I then signed up with a cable company, and was live the next day. Much to the surprise of my boss.
A few years later, AT&T put in fiber optic cables in our neighborhood, and they physically came to my door three times to get me to come back. I told them they had horrible customer service and I would not consider itplus there were a lot of drops with their service.
And now after seeing the above thread, boy am I glad they gave me horrible customer service!
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...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