AT&T to End Data-Collection Program for Broadband Customers
September 30 2016 - 5:16PM
Dow Jones News
By Thomas Gryta
AT&T Inc. plans to discontinue a program that collected
web-browsing data from broadband customers or required them to pay
a higher monthly rate.
The program, introduced in late 2013, charges $29 for households
that prefer to withhold their data from the telecom giant. But the
company is dropping both the fee and the data collection
itself.
AT&T has been rolling out super fast gigabit broadband in
many of its markets and used the data to support its targeted
advertising efforts.
For example, its GigaPower service in Austin, Texas, costs $70 a
month--the same as rival Google -- but that price included the data
collection program called Internet Preferences. The cost was $99
for those declining the program. Now, those users will pay $70 and
not have data collected.
"We plan to end the optional Internet Preferences advertising
program related to our fastest internet speed tiers," a company
spokesman said. "We'll begin communicating this update to customers
early next week."
The company said it was making the move to simplify its
offerings to customers. The news was earlier reported by tech-news
site Ars Technica.
AT&T's collection included search terms, webpages visited
and links clicked. The tracking remained in effect even if a user
cleared cookies, used an ad-blocking program, or switched on a
browser's do-not-track settings.
AT&T's move comes as the Federal Communications Commission
is weighing customer-privacy rules for internet-access providers,
including a requirement to obtain customers' permission to use
their data in many cases.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 30, 2016 17:01 ET (21:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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