AT&T wants to know: how much would you pay for a little online privacy?

[dixiegrrrrl]

`What's one piece of your privacy worth? About a dollar a day, suggests telecom giant AT&T.

The company's latest internet service offering in Austin, Texas comes in two flavors.
The company might as well call them the "some privacy" and "no privacy" services.
The cheaper version gives customers a discount in return for being targeted more intrusively than ever by user-specific advertising.

This is a long article, well worth the read.
I was esp. struck by THIS:
On a per-app basis, wrote Scott Savage and Donald M Waldman, users were "willing to make a one-time payment for each app
of $2.28 to conceal their browser history,
$4.05 to conceal their list of contacts,
$1.19 to conceal their location,
$1.75 to conceal their phone's identification number,
and $3.58 to conceal the contents of their text messages.
The consumer is also willing to pay $2.12 to eliminate advertising".
And the more experienced a user was with the technology, the more he or she was willing to pay – strongly suggesting that educated technology users don't like what's being done to them.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/13/at-t-austin-uverse-experiment-user-data

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Any guarantees that, after paying such fees, your info WON'T end up in Utah?

Even AT&T cannot guarantee it.

[Oscarmonster13]

2. ya, that's what I thought, too

but it's a nice way to make some extra cash, right? assholes

[Phlem]

3. huh, now privacy's a commodity?

That's F up.

-p

[jsr]

4. "Give us protection money"

[onehandle]

5. DIE, CARRIERS! DIE!

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll read your post and see what it's about.

[brooklynite]

6. Simple question...why stay with AT&T?

Too many people seem to feel "trapped" by their existing phone company. In addition to the "big four", there a number of alternative cell phone providers with competitive rates and alternative service policies. Buy yourself out of your contract (nb - you actually DO owe them the money, since you bought your phone at a discount rate to be paid out through your contract period) and shop around. I believe our friends on the right call it "the miracle of the free market".

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. If AT&T makes this plan work

the other carriers will copy it.

[global1]

8. Paying For Privacy....

seems like another way to separate the 'Haves' from the 'Have Nots'. At some point in time it could become so pricey that only the 'Haves' will be able to afford paying for their privacy and the rest of us will be fair game.

Don't like what I'm seeing down line in the future. This sucks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Well, there will be 3 catagories, methinks.

The ones that pay
the ones that can/won't pay
and the ones that avoid the entire issue by utilizing the anti-spy ware that will develop as a result of this plan.
plus using VPN type services.

I assume that AT&T is already selling customer info.