Opting Out of AT&T's 'Gigapower' Snooping is Comically Expensive When AT&T first launched their 1 Gbps "Gigapower" service in Austin late last year in response to Google Fiber, the company's pricing raised a few eyebrows. In addition to the $350 ETF, installation and activation fees (which Google doesn't charge), AT&T was only willing to truly match Google's $70 pricing point if you agreed to opt in to the company's Internet Preferences, which goes beyond Google-esque snooping to use deep packet inspection to track each and every website you visit, and for how long.

quote: But the $29 more a month to keep your privacy isn’t actually $29 a month. As you add video service, the price differential between choosing privacy and letting AT&T snoop rose to $62 a month for an equivalent package and included a $49 one-time fee (see the screenshot below). Keeping your web history out of Ma Bell’s hands would have cost almost $800 the first year you signed up at the high-end and $531 at the low-end of ordering only internet. Some have tried to argue that what AT&T's doing is a quote: “We're down to a fairly limited number of ISPs in the US anyway, and there's not been a good track record of those large providers like Comcast and AT&T, so I think a lot of the skepticism is warranted, and I think a lot of the burden is on them to show that they are honoring their privacy policies," (Security researcher Kenneth) White said. "Some of us think the idea of monetizing ad profiles for consumer ISPs is just unfathomable in the first place� but if there is a tier where they claim there are privacy enhancements and [it's] less invasive, the security community and privacy community are going to be looking very closely at those claims to make sure they're as stated." Of course since Gigapower is a limited deployment targeting high-end developments and Google Fiber neighborhoods, users will often have the choice to switch to another ISP (which may or may not implement something similar). That won't be the case should AT&T decide to expand the program for all DSL and U-Verse users, who may not have the ability to vote with their wallet. Originally, it was believed that it would cost users around $30 a month extra if they didn't want to be tracked by AT&T. But then GigaOM's Stacey Higginbotham penned a great report highlighting how it was actually substantially more than that. Higginbotham noted that not only did AT&T make the option very difficult to find, it would actually cost users between $49 and $60 per month to opt out of:Some have tried to argue that what AT&T's doing is a good thing , a narrative somewhat deflated by the fact AT&T tries to hide the option. There's also really not much transparency here -- AT&T refuses to say precisely what technology they're using to do the tracking, and there's really no way to confirm the company is respecting opt out requests. Meanwhile, people seem to quickly forget this is precisely the kind of snoopvertising companies like NebuAD were destroyed by lawsuits over . In a new piece riffing off of Higginbotham's findings , Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin talks to a number of privacy advocates and security researchers, most of whom are alarmed by the precedent AT&T is setting:Of course since Gigapower is a limited deployment targeting high-end developments and Google Fiber neighborhoods, users will often have the choice to switch to another ISP (which may or may not implement something similar). That won't be the case should AT&T decide to expand the program for all DSL and U-Verse users, who may not have the ability to vote with their wallet.







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 51 comments

decifal

join:2007-03-10

Bon Aqua, TN 4 recommendations decifal Member who Who says they will actually honor it as well?