Global: Trade Privacy for Money, says AT&T

AT&T-privacy-issueCharging for privacy is the new business frontier for internet service providers, proves AT&T, the American multinational telecommunications corporation. The service provider has begun to charge its GigaPower customers to pay more if they do not want to get spied for what they do online.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

AT&T’s GigaPower is a superfast internet service that lets the customers download 25 songs in a fraction of a second. It relies on fiber-optic cables that carry data faster than the traditional copper wires.

The speed comes at a cost – $139 per month. Clubbing the television and phone services, the cost will further add up to another $60. If you wish for a cheaper cost for the same service, it is available at $110, however, you may want to let AT&T monitor your browsing habits.

How Privacy is turned into Money?

AT&T would simply trade the data of browsing habits of its customers to the advertisers by directing the web browsing history to an in-house traffic scanning program. The program will analyze the data and comes out with results that will help the advertisers to send targeted ads to the websites customers visit, send personalized emails to their inbox or even direct mails to their home addresses. Naturally, advertisers will pay more when their ads are heavily targeted only to those who are interested in their products.

Google too does a similar spying by monitoring the activities customers do on Google services. However, AT&T’s monitoring is massive, covering all the activities of customers. For a consolation, the company promises that they will not reveal the personal information received to any third party.