AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours

[unhappycamper]

AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours
David Lazarus
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials.

The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."

The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service -- a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers' recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

more

[tuvor]

1. Boycott, anyone?

[unhappycamper]

4. Were it only that easy.

Read up on how the telephone system works here.

[wordpix2]

10. here in CT, AT&T owns the "right" to serve us locally & no one else can

provide local service. The only recourse we have is to switch long distance service. :grr:

[primavera]

14. Sounds like a Lieberpuke rule to me

Didn't AT&T buy one of DLC's board membership seats?

[Supersedeas]

54. the Communications Lobby has long tentacles

[Matariki]

20. time for VOIP??

[anotherdrew]

25. you could go cell phone only n/t

[mconvente]

29. Seems like the only way to beat this, other than Vonage

Vonage's stock has dropped 50% in the last couple of months so I don't know what's up with that - like on how the company is doing. Cell phone only seems weird but it could get past this.

[Le Taz Hot]

44. I LOVE my Vonage account!

After paying into AT&T for 35 years, I didn't pay the last 2 months' bills (long story -- I didn't have service for 3 weeks AND they were trying to bill me for FUTURE use). They've now sent me to collections. Screw 'em! I don't have the money to pay them and they sure as hell can't squeeze blood out of a rock. After signing up for Vonage, I figure I'm saving about $80.00 a month.

[rocktivity]

46. Got a letter from Vonage offering stock to customers a few months ago

That may have something to do with it.

Those early Vonage commercials literally shamed me into joining them. I was willing to give up premium cable to pay for high-speed internet, so why was I still paying through the nose for phone service?

Vonage requires a backup phone number, and if you don't have one, you can go to a place like Tracfone.com and get a phone for as little as $20 plus pay as you go minutes. It doesn't need to be a monthly expense.

:headbang:
rocknation

[hpot]

26. Vonage is great If you have High Speed Internet

Vonage.com

[Scairp]

34. You could go totally wireless

Many people now days have only mobile phone service, and since one can pick just about any company they want, getting away from AT&T is very possible. This is completely outrageous, and I would never knowingly agree to this. This is so wrong on so many levels. How can they expect us to PAY them to violate our privacy?!

[mhatrw]

37. I've already canceled service. (nt)

[AnOhioan]

2. One way or another......

Personal data is no longer "personal".


http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm

[Gormy Cuss]

15. The reason it is no longer private is that WE aren't demanding it.

Too few people care about it in this country, it seems.

[babylonsister]

3. Any ideas on how I can find an alternative company in TX?

Do you know of any websites where I can comparison shop? I'm not at all happy with this. I switched from AT&T to SBC, now I'm stuck with them again. And with these policy changes, I need to find another provider. I have nothing to hide, but will be damned if they're going to dictate how my confidential info is used.

[unhappycamper]

5. Take a look at Working Assets

http://workingassets.com/

It appears they do not provide dial tone, but they might have something for you. BUT - if your concern is privacy, you are pretty much screwed.

[NashVegas]

6. I Have Working Assets

Local service from BellSouth, but that may be about to change, with the upcoming AT & T merger.

[wordpix2]

12. sounds like AT&T has a monopoly across the country---don't we have anti

trust laws anymore?

[CountAllVotes]

17. what this country needs is another Theodore Roosevelt!

He would have NEVER allowed this to happen, NEVER! We need another TR and we need one NOW!!!

:kick:

[tavalon]

23. Oh, that is such a pre-9/11 mindset!

Freedom is out, monopolies are in! Yay, fascism!!!

:sarcasm:

[The Brethren]

33. good question wordpix.

but the latest legal maneuvering from businesses like AT&T is to change their bylaws so they can do whatever they want and continue to merger till we have no real choices left. Essentially we are scr*wed. The only way I can see around this is to make it as political as possible and demand that Congress address and enforce it.

[primavera]

13. Same here

Not sure how much protection it affords in light of the infrastructural vulnerabilities unhappycamper describes, but they're perhaps small enough to escape notice for a while and they will not cooperate if/when Big Brother finally gets around to trying to coopt them into violating their clients' privacy.

[agio]

27. (self-delete)

mispost, sorry.

[CountAllVotes]

8. I know of one

They are in India and they own the lines (I asked them and they said that yes, they are their telephone lines - not AT&T's or anyone elses). They are known as Primus and their telephone # is 1-800-293-7658 ...

I've had them for several years and I had AT&T briefly and recently switched back to them and they reimbursed me for the switching fee(s). They can pick up both local toll calls and long distance calls. Rates are very competitive IMO and at least they own the lines, NOT AT&T. :thumbsup: for you Primus! :D

:kick:

[babylonsister]

39. Thanks, CAV! I'll check them out! nt

[peacetalksforall]

7. I don't get this video stuff -

"In a section on "usage information," the privacy policy says AT&T will collect "information about viewing, game, recording and other navigation choices that you and those in your household make when using Homezone or AT&T U-verse TV Services."

Viewing programs coming from satellite? recording program choices, tracking navigation choices?

Is that the way to catch a terrorist?

Satellite in partnership with Dish? Does that mean Dish does this?

Why do they call satellite tv programs 'video'. Maybe I'm not technically smart here.

Anyone know what this means?

[RoyGBiv]

47. I don't understand the question ...

Why do they call satellite tv programs "video"? Television is video service. AT&T has been ramping up to offer video (television) service for some time, has been lobbying federal, state, and local authorities to relax its rules so that they can enter the marketplace without controls of any kind placed upon them, and in the next-to-final stages has partnered with satellite video providers to work its way into the marketplace that will make the transition easy for them.

And then every last person who falls for the cheap sales tactics will be owned.

That's what it means.

[RoyGBiv]

48. Delete ... wrong place

[peacetalksforall]

9. Now we're going to learn the number of people who will not accept

the loss of privacy.

AT & T is going to take a hit - how much?

[rodeodance]

11. well, there is is folks!! Orwell coming into existance.

[Kagemusha]

16. This fight's just starting.

Never before has a telco asked customers to accept anywhere NEAR this kind of privacy policy. I mean, that's a mockery of the term. It's a non-privacy policy. This is what literally decades of Congressional legislating has been trying to avoid. Making it this blatant is, well, I dunno, maybe nothing can be done at all. But it's a serious slap in the face.

[w4rma]

18. Wow, stay far away from that company. They could sell your buisnesses'

secrets, that they got by scanning their own networks, for their own profit under those rules.

[Zodiak]

19. Whew...glad I switched

To a cable phone before AT&T enacted this (I was on worldnet).

Not one DUer should still be on AT&T or any of the three companies listed in the NYT article, even if the lines belong to AT&T.

You would think with all of the customers (like me) who quit AT&T and stated the reasons for switching (The Indian customer service rep wasn't surprised by my reasons) would have prompted the company to be more respectful of privacy. The fact that AT&T went the opposite direction indicates that they do not care about customers' privacy and they think that the government will back them up 100%. Classic fascism.

[Daphne08]

21. They are just like so many other huge American corporations.

WE, the people of this country... WE MADE them!

WE are the only reason they NOW have so much money and so much power, and in the end...

all they can do for US... is screw us??

:grr:

[Javaman]

22. SBC (now AT&T) is a giganto humungo repuke contributor...

big surprise, right?

[nolabels]

24. Pride always goes before the fall

Such pompous ranting will never serve anyone well, but least for them.

Dig in baby, we're listening :popcorn:

[Jawja]

53. Yep.

Same thing happened to the railroads. They got so arrogant in regard to their customers and they eventually paid for it.

[agio]

28. some suggestions

Switch to Sprint or Working Assets mobile, and ditch your land line. (The former is still kind of evil, but they will safeguard your privacy better than their competitors.)

Switch your high-speed internet to cable, if you can.

Also, if you own any stock in AT&T, divest. Check to see where your TIAA/CREF money is going.

[Debau2005]

30. As of July 1

I will be landline free. When I called ATT and Bellsouth to disconnect, they asked why I was not moving my service. I told them that I no longer felt like I wanted to pay a company to give my private data to the government. They were not surprised to hear this. ATT tried to heavy hand me into keeping service by trying to scare me with thoughts of no service in emergencies, blah, blah, blah...I told her to cancel it and keep her opinions to herself.

[EFerrari]

31. Welcome to DU, agio

:hi:

[unhappycamper]

36. agio: Welcome to DU!!!!

You might want to take a look at the link I put in post #4.

Canceling service with fascist phone and internet corporations is voting with your $$$. If they were to lose a few million customers, you might get their attention.

To stop this shit, we need a political solution to a political problem.

[dusmcj]

32. fascist dumbasses. nt

Sieg Heil dem Unterprofitenfuhrer.

Morons.

[sendero]

35. Here in Dallas..

.. there was once a damn good telephone company called Southwestern Bell. Then, SWB got bought or merged with SBC, a telephone company that sucks. Then SBC bought AT&T and now AT&T sucks.

Right now, I could easily live without my landline phone service, but you cannot get DSL without it. I'm looking for alternatives but short of wireless or satellite based systems, which are all kinda expensive, I've not found anything yet.

But hope springs eternal, and as soon as I do find an alternative, I won't be doing any business with AT&T again.

[DELUSIONAL]

38. Boycott ATT

[puffthemagicdragon]

40. yikes

I became AT&T free in 2001.

[Rex]

41. SBC sucked, AT&T sucks a zillion times more!

I hate seeing the AT&T logo pop up on my browser. It reminds me that Big Brother is watching. I hope one day this fascist company pays for letting customers down in so many ways.

[unhappycamper]

42. I now refer to those fascists as NSAT&T.

It fits.

[Renegade Six]

43. Just called Cingular Wireless

per customer service, this DOES NOT apply to cingular wireless who were migrated over from (NS)AT&T cell service. Im still skeptical though.

[Veronica.Franco]

45. "We're AT&T .. you pay US and we own YOU" ...

AT the sound of the tone we will give any and all of your personal information to whomever will give us the most lucrative government contract ... BEEP! ...

[RoyGBiv]

49. Been saying this for two years ...

Been screaming my lungs out about it coming. I've mentioned it time and time again, here and everywhere. I have been shouted down as paranoid and worse, the worse generally coming from DU strangely enough.

But I work in a competing industry, so obviously I don't know what I'm talking about.

Okay, I know it's not about me.

But the thing is this. Within the next year, AT&T is going to be driving the small providers of phone and video service out of the market. The middle-sized companies may, or may not, hang on, but their service will suffer greatly. Large providers will continue, but the service you're accustomed to, good or bad, will be horrendous. Why? AT&T/SBC has been building a war chest that will allow them to offer their video services below cost, and they've been sucking the right asses to allow them not to follow the same legal restrictions to which cable companies are held. Want a la carte pricing? You'll get it with AT&T, and people will sing its praises while cable providers are still strangled by "must carry" rules and smaller, less profitable stations like Sundance and IFC go dark. All this will work together to, as they truthfully claim without mentioning the details, drive down prices, and everyone will fall for it.

And then when you have no more options, you're fucked.

I hate to be so pessimistic about it, but being on the inside of the industry, I see the signs far too clearly. This has already happened, and there's nothing that will be done about it.

[BronxBoy]

51. Funny how this is all happening

right when he net neutality issue is being debated.

Think they know something???

[RoyGBiv]

52. It's all connected ...

And, yeah, they know something.

[Copperred]

50. Everyone should switch to SKYPE and BOYCOTT!!! THIS IS NOTTHE SOVIET UNION

[mvd]

55. Never liked them - now I'm even happier I'm not with them