In December of 2013, when AT&T rolled out its high-speed U-verse network in Austin, Texas, the company said it would offer a cheaper plan to
people who were willing to receive ads targeted based on their Web activity.
AT&T apparently liked that idea so much that it's now rolling out a
similar plan in Kansas City -- where it's launching a new 1 GB fiber network that will compete with Google. The telecom said on Monday that the price of subscriptions to its network will depend on
consumers' willingness to be tracked for ad-targeting purposes.
People who accept AT&T's ad targeting -- which the company calls the “Internet Preferences” program -- can purchase 1 GB service for $70 a month. People who don't want to participate in
Internet Preferences will be charged $99 a month for the same 1 GB service.
“When you select AT&T Internet Preferences, we can offer you our best pricing on GigaPower because you let
us use your individual Web browsing information, like the search terms you enter and the web pages you visit, to tailor ads and offers to your interests,” the company says on a site explaining
the program.
AT&T says that people who sign up for Internet Preferences won't necessarily receive more ads than other users, but that the ads are more likely to relate to Web
activity.
“After you browse hotels in Miami, you may be offered discounts for rental cars there,” AT&T says. “If you are exploring a new home appliance at one
retailer, you may be presented with similar appliance options from other retailers.”
The company won't collect data from secured or encrypted sites. But when users visited unencrypted
sites, AT&T will collect information about pages visited, time spent on each page, search query terms, and the links and ads that are viewed and followed.
Unlike many companies that
operate online behavioral targeting programs, AT&T doesn't say that the information it collects is “anonymous.”
On the contrary, the company says that the targeted ads
might arrive on email, or be sent through direct mail.
In the past, privacy advocates have challenged ad targeting by Internet service providers, which have access to almost everything users
do online -- including search engine queries and activity at non-commercial sites.
Given the vast amount of data available to ISPs, some advocates have said that broadband carriers should
obtain users' explicit consent before engaging in this type of ad targeting. Here, AT&T seems to be doing so -- at least on paper. Whether subscribers will read the offer's fine print, much less
understand the scope of AT&T's data collection, remains to be seen.