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AT&T offers lower cost connnections if you let them snoop on you [telecom]

AT&T's plan to watch your Web browsing - and what you can do about it

Want to opt out? It could cost up to $744 extra per year.

by Jon Brodkin

If you have AT&T'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 [offering] - 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.

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Reply to
Bill Horne
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How does that differ from what Google does with every service it offers? Shame on them (AT&T) for disclosing what Google already

*does*? [It's amusing, though, when you see the tradeoff -- privacy vs. $$ -- expressed so openly. I.e., AT&T values your privacy at $744! I wonder what valuation Google places on it?]
Reply to
Don Y

Because Google's at the server end of the connection, and in general you're not paying anything directly for what you get.

AT&T is *your* end of the connection, you're paying them actual cash money every month, and now they want even more money to avoid being spied on. Phooey.

There are plenty of outfits that will sell you VPN service for $10/mo which tunnels all of your traffic to a server somewhere else. I'd think that would make it pretty hard for AT&T to spy on you, and it's a lot less than AT&T's opt-out price.

R's, John

Reply to
John Levine

Would this sort of interception be permitted for POTS? Why is it permitted here, now that ISPs are regulated as a telecommunications service? Their job is to deliver bits without tampering or reading them.

Harold

Reply to
Harold Hallikainen

You hit the nail on the head: it's permitted here *because* AT&T is discounting the price of the service in return. In other words, they are making the offer *because* the regulations have changed.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Horne

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