AT&T is changing its privacy policy with two new “programs,” that involve the the sale of customer data.
One program will sell businesses “anonymous information about groups of customers, such as how they collectively use our products and services,” such as “the number of wireless devices in or near their store by time of day, together with anonymous information about those device users’ collective age or gender.”
Another program will “use local geography as a factor in delivering online and mobile ads to the people who might find them most useful.” For example, if you are “if you happen to live in an area where people like going to the movies, you may get ads for movie theaters.” AT&T said it ”doesn’t mean you’ll get more ads, it just means that the ads you get from AT&T may be more suited to your interests.”
AT&T has published a FAQ on how it shares information with other companies.
In a blog post on June 28th, AT&T’s Bob Quinn pointed out that AT&T is following in the footsteps of Facebook, Google and rival Verizon, “All of us are familiar with Facebook serving ads to its users based on common interests they have explicitly or implicitly documented on Facebook. And we know that Google collects information and uses that to provide us with information and ads.” He added, “In our own industry, Verizon uses anonymous and aggregate customer data to create marketing reports that help other companies better serve their customers.”
How opt out
You can opt-out of any of these programs by following the links on this page. You’ll need to opt out from each computer browser and mobile phone you use.