How To Stop AT&T From Selling Your Private Data To Advertisers 88
An anonymous reader writes "AT&T is ready to follow in its rivals' footsteps and begin selling the private usage data it collects from its subscribers' phones to advertisers. The data in question is anonymized, according to AT&T, but it includes very sensitive information such as customers' locations, Web browsing history, mobile app usage and more. Privacy is something of a hot button issue right now, so it is likely that a number of AT&T subscribers would prefer to not have their private data sold to advertisers. Luckily, there is a fast and easy way to opt out of AT&T's 'External Marketing and Analytics Reporting' program."
Can't log on? Here's another way in (Score:5, Informative)
I couldn't log in through the proffered http://www.att.com/cmpchoice [att.com] link.
Another way in is through the standard payments portal [att.com]. Once logged in there, you can go to Profile -> Account & User Information -> Marketing Preferences [att.com]. This lets you opt out of direct marketing that they send to you. (Might as well take care of that while you're in there.) At the very bottom, below the buttons, is a link to "Update your privacy choices for External Marketing & Analytics reports" (which is the same cmpchoice link as above). Clicking it bypasses the login page since you're already authenticated.
How exactly do you anonymyze location data? (Score:4, Informative)
You don't think large advertising companies have some automated way of taking a GPS location, converting that to an address, then using public records to look up the owner of the property?
Give me a month of a homeowner's GPS data and access to public records, and I can write a program that will determine exactly who they are with a relatively high degree of certainty.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's not their data (Score:2, Informative)
It is their data. It is their network, to which you are subscribing.
You are using their towers, or the towers they pay to use from other companies. You are using their exit nodes to a landline, if you call one. Every ping, every byte, is their property.
Because of wiretapping laws, and the general unpleasantness of a massive subscriber torch fest, they are not going to do anything with your voice or data.
The metadata, however, packaged on a phone you probably bought from them, processed on an extensive network they paid for, belongs to them.
You generated it, as the customer. It doesn't belong to you - it merely describes you. In horrendously fine detail, such that in my opinion it is a contract violation to store, not to mention process it in any fashion.
Remember - it is your data in the sense that you generated it, and also in the sense that it captures the not-quite-finer details of your day to day living. It is identity theft waiting to happen, and if someone manages to gather that data there should be not just trials and convictions, but hangings and torches in the street.
But the data is not yours.
If you want to own the data, you have to own the network - own the hardware, own the fiber, own the towers. Then it's yours.
Re:Read the contract. (Score:5, Informative)
If the GP is referring to Straight Talk, you get unlimited everything (USA only) for 45.00/mo. Calls, texts, data etc. I've been using them for over a year and it's been fine for me. Plus, they use Verizon's towers so the coverage is excellent.
Not in any way associated with them. I just use their service. I've got friends paying 60.00 plus a month for something like 700 minutes and that's on a dumb phone, very limited data. Why? The options are worth checking out......
Re:Read the contract. (Score:4, Informative)
You can still sue AT&T, or any other company that forces arbitration. The only thing it does it prevent users from joining class action suits.