AT&T May Begin Selling Anonymous Customer Web, App and Location Data

AT&T has revised its Privacy Policy to indicate that it may share anonymous customer location information as well as web and app usage information. The carrier said it may begin selling customer's wireless/Wi-Fi locations, U-verse usage, website browsing, mobile application usage and other information to businesses. The data will be provided in aggregate so it cannot be used to identify one particular individual.

Customers can reportedly opt out of the program. AT&T claims "the new programs we are introducing will use aggregate and anonymous data to create marketing and analytics reports, and to allow us to deliver more relevant advertising to our customers."

Aggregate and Anonymous Data: This is data that can’t be tracked back to you individually. Here’s an easy example: After an election in your community, officials will release the final vote tally. They might say that 60 percent of the voters picked Candidate A and 40 percent picked Candidate B. That information is a type of aggregate and anonymous data. It’s “aggregate” because it combines information for the whole community telling you who the community as a whole voted for, and it is anonymous because the data doesn’t tell you who voted for which candidate. In the Internet world, aggregate and anonymous data can be used by retailers, advertisers and marketing companies to figure out what consumers want in a particular area. You benefit by having better products available and seeing advertising more relevant to your particular consumer segment


In order to opt-out, users must first log in to their AT&T account. From there, navigate to the Profile tab and then the Marketing Preferences Tab. At the very bottom you will see a link that says Update your privacy choices for External Marketing & Analytics reports. Press that and check the numbers you wish to opt out of. You can also try access the link below to opt out.

What do you think of these new changes?

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