How much is your privacy worth? If the answer is “$29 a month,” you might want to look into AT&T.
AT&T charges $70 a month for its high-speed fiber-optic internet service—but assumes with that the rights to crawl your search history and use that information to send you targeted ads. For an extra $29, they’ll leave you in peace.
The policy has been in place since 2013, when AT&T’s fiber internet service GigaPower launched in Texas. It’s now being rolled out in Kansas City, bringing its privacy practices back into the spotlight.
Because of the way AT&T’s fiber connection works, you can’t opt out of data collection simply by disabling cookies or using an incognito browsing method. Their program “works independently of your browser’s privacy settings regarding cookies, do-not-track and private browsing.”
“When you select AT&T Internet Preferences, we can offer you our best pricing best pricing on GigaPower because you let us use your individual Web browsing information, like the search terms you enter and the web pages you visit, to tailor ads and offers to your interests,” AT&T’s website explains.
AT&T pledges not to sell the information collected to outside advertisers.
GigaPower is AT&T’s challenge to Google’s Fiber program, which boasts speeds up to 100 times faster than cable.
