• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, July 9, 2013

Anyone remember the days when the major carriers seemed to resist all efforts at monetizing mobile as an advertising channel because they were afraid of pissing off customers and killing that golden goose of voice revenue? Yeah, those days are over. Signaling that it was about to expand its use of data in marketing for its own products as well as for partners, AT&T revised its privacy policy in late June. The times they are changing, the company reminded its customers in a blog post. “In today’s online world, many companies are increasingly using customer data to help personalize and improve the products and services they offer consumers,” Bob Quinn wrote. And he was quick to point out that in sharing anonymous aggregate data with marketers, the company was following in the footsteps of rival Verizon. It also cited Facebook and Google.

In other words, we’re not going to lay out our own rationale so much as point to the fact that everybody is doing it. And just like everyone else, we will allude to benefits from all of this that we cannot specifically point to. But you can be assured that one of those benefits will not include a reduced bill. And we're also not going to distinguish between the companies like us that are already charging you massive amounts each month from the ones that are providing free services in exchange for your data.

Now, it is to be expected that those who are motivated to comment on the post are most likely to complain. But in this case it was pretty clear that AT&T’s corporate speak was actually inflaming rather than dousing negative sentiment. A number of people asked whether this change in policy gave them the option to cancel their contract without penalty. Others pointed out that customers were already paying AT&T and that AT&T is not paying them. And others simply objected to unclear opt-out procedures and the simple fact that AT&T didn’t just come out and say this was a way they were trying to make more money from their users.

The curious thing about this post is that it keeps referring to an opt-out policy that it doesn’t actually link to. Only when asked about it directly by a user does the blog team push you over to a PDF of a letter that includes two links to opt out of two different programs. In fact, if you follow the trail there are, by my count, six separate data collection programs that a consumer needs to consults and opt out of separately from this single company. One of the programs requires that you opt out of individual lines and involves external data analytics reports to marketing partners. Another one seems to involve online cookies but then confuses the user even more by branching the opt out into two channels -- one for tracking on AT&T’s own site and then another for all of its ad network partners.

The obvious communications misstep here is less about what AT&T is doing with its data than the way in which it is communicating to customers. It is promising transparency, clarity and simplicity and delivering anything but. The opt-out hamster trail makes the whole exercise of disclosure feel disingenuous. The timing for this couldn’t have been worse. It comes in the midst of broader news stories and concerns about surveillance and consumer tracking in all aspects of public and private life.

Ultimately, the new willingness among carriers to share their customers’ data with third parties will not result in alienated customers. Despite complaints, alarms from watchdogs and threatened legislation, which has been going on for years, the long-promised comeuppance for digital data gathering has never materialized. What is lost here is a real opportunity to establish a more forthright conversation with consumers. Is this really what “consumer first” is all about?