AT&T Rewrites Privacy Policy

VikingThunder writes "The San Francisco Chronicle reports that AT&T has revamped its privacy policy, in an effort to head off future consumer lawsuits, with changes taking effect this Friday. AT&T is introducing a new policy that gives it more 'latitude' when it comes to sharing your browsing history with government agencies. Notable changes include notification that AT&T will track viewing habits of customers of its new video services Homezone and U-Verse, which is forbidden for cable and satellite companies, as well as explicitly stating that the customer's data belongs to the company: 'While your account information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T. As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.'"

Any teeth to these?

[dr_dank]

Do privacy polices have any real legal meaning to them? Companies write them, I don't think they'll punish themselves for violating them.

AT&T, once known for slamming customers..

[GonzoTech]

AT&T will never get it right. Their ethics in customer service are just as bad as their business ethics.

Slamming your customers used to be the popular move from AT&T, now I guess it's giving away personal data.

I'll just continue my resistance of using ANY AT&T products or services.

Re:It's time to take action.

[bleh-of-the-huns]

Ditching ATT is not so easy, they have a very large infrastructure and massive backbone. There is really no way to avoid using their services, either directly or indirectly. I hate to say this, but the only way to stop this is through gov intervention (I wont say regulation because I have regulation), but there is little way for the avg consumer to impact ATT's pocket book, now if companies (end user ISPs and such) toss ATT, that would definately hurt them.

Re:Any teeth to these?

[gEvil (beta)]

No, a company will most likely not punish themselves for violating their privacy policy. However, my understanding is that they do constitute legally binding agreements with regards to what they do with your information. If the company is found to have violated the agreement that was presented to you, then you do have legal grounds to pursue them for damages. Of course, IANAL, so the preceding may be completely wrong.

Reminding you once again...

[Jerf]

Reminding you once again that any privacy policy [sbc.com] that includes the clause that it can be changed at any time with minimal notification and no consent is no privacy policy at all.

(To be fair, the linked policy does have a nod towards "materially different" changes to the privacy policy. But guess who decides what "materially different" is...?)

Time for the Privacy Act

[Mad Dog Manley]

As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.'"

Don't you see, AT&T is doing this for you, the valued customer. It is in your best interests. Don't you want to be kept safe from the evil0rz criminals?

In Canada, the Privacy Act restricts the ability of corporations to share private information. Admittedly it's not perfect, but it appears to be better than what exists in the United States.

Re:Time for the Privacy Act

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing is, the wording seems to have nothing to do with the customer. ATT is basically saying that your information will be given out to anyone who asks for it. They're not protecting their customers, they're protecting themselves.

Thank you!

[RingDev]

The best way to force AT&T to change their game is to vote with your all-mighty dollar. A single dollar-voting customer is worth any number of petitions and angry letters.

-Rick

Furthermore

[aepervius]

Do you know many legal agreement between two private party, and which can be changed at any time by one party, even absolving this party from any previous legal agreemeent with the other party, without involving this second party ? Me neither.

Virus ownership?

[Sebastopol]

Does that mean if I download a virus from an AT&T pipe that they own the virus too, so if it damanges my machine I can sue them, or maybe I can hold AT&T responsible for "their data" corrupting "my system" that I purchased?

Re:Effective tool

[Tackhead]

> The NSA terrorist surveillance program approved by President Bush is an effective tool for law enforcement to identify and break up terrorist activity before it can metastasize again on these shores and cause 9/11 style death and destruction. A large majority of the American electorate approves this action. By all means write to your representative on this issue. That is the American way. Then take your place on the minority side of the issue while President Bush kicks the bloody hell out of radical islam.

The NSA terrorist surveillance program approved by President Clinton II is an effective tool for law enforcement to identify and break up terrorist activity before it can can metastasize again on these shores and cause Okalahoma-style death and destruction. A large majority of the American electorate approves this action. By all means write to your representative on this issue. That is the American way. Then take your place on the minority side of the issue while President Clinton II thanks your half of the Party for giving her the tools she needs to kick the bloody hell out of the Second Amendment fanatics.

(And after 8 years of Republicans arguing against Stasi-like surveillance of fundie Christian groups, the Democratic wing of the Party will power over to the Republican wing of the Party, and the ratchet having gone another 360 degrees tighter...)

Re:Reminding you once again...

[bsartist]

Reminding you once again that any privacy policy that includes the clause that it can be changed at any time with minimal notification and no consent is no privacy policy at all.

It reminds me of job descriptions that include a long list of duties, and at the end say "additional duties as assigned." The catch-all at the end renders the rest of the list moot; they could have simply stated "duties: do what you're told" and been just as accurate.

Re:Effective tool

[evileyetmc]

The NSA terrorist surveillance program approved by President Bush is an effective tool for law enforcement ...

Really? I didn't realize that, since I have not heard of one terrorist activity being prevented by the NSA. After all, what are wiretapped grandmas going to do?

I have no problem with wiretaps, if they are warranted. These days, it is not difficult to get the warrant...you could just show some evidence that the person may be linked to a terrorist organization, and wahlah, you have a warrant. All that I ask is that the get the warrant first, or at least get one period.

Oh, and if you can show me where this wiretapping has been more successful than traditional techniques, I'd be all ears. Until then I will continue to not jump on the 'kill the jihad' bandwagon. This country needs at least a few sane heads.

Re:Effective tool

[Anonymous Coward]

I would expect more backbone from a poster at /.

Throughout every lie and deception perpetrated by the sitting administration in an "effort" to "improve" the security of this nation, I am reminded of a few little blurbs from Benjamin Franklin:

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"
"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power"

Re:How is this legal?

[mrchaotica]

You know, 10 years ago the only people worried about privacy were those crazy militia guys in Montana. Nowadays, they not only seem sane, but increasingly look like geniuses!

sheep

[non]

i hate regulation...
privacy policy...
etc.

are you people stupid? you must be, the government just announced it spent 30 million of your money to buy exactly this type of information. in my mind thats the ultimate indignation, they broke the law, and operated against my interests using my cash. if you're going to sit around and just carp about privacy policies rather than demanding serious reforms AND regulations in the laws governing personal information then thats exactly what you are...

Re:It's time to take action.

[harrkev]

Of course, if that doesn't work, just ditch AT&T.

I currently do not use AT&T. However...

Anytime anybody calls me using AT&T, my phone number appears in those records. And since I am not an AT&T customer, I have not agreed to their privacy policy. Is there any legal remedy for this?

Re:It's time to take action.

[alshithead]

I think AT&T is just the first domino in line. Ditching them won't do you any good when others will be following. I can certainly see Sprint and Verizon taking advantage of AT&T going first..."hey, we can say everyone is doing it!" "may disclose your information in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process," Nice and broad. I wonder who gets to define "legal process".

privacy?

[blitz487]

'While your account information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T. As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.'

In other words, their "privacy" policy is they can do whatever they please without limit with your information.

How far AT&T have fallen...

[SourceVisigoth]

Over the past 30 years they've gone from a monolithic corporate/government agency that owns your phone, line, and soul to a decentralized oligarchy that owns your phone, line, and soul... back to a umm... hrrmmm..

Re:It's time to take action.

[Lumpy]

First remembet that it is not AT&T but SBC wearing a AT&T suit they bought.

This is typical SBC tactics they have been pulling over the years.... They just thought that by changing their name nobody would notice.

remember when you hear AT&T you are not hearing the AT&T from the past but SBC trying to hide from their reputation.

Re:VOIP modem to Out of country ISP?

[Oswald]

Well, it's interesting, but it kind of misses the point. I don't have anything to hide from the NSA; that's not why I want them to stop spying on Americans. I want them to stop spying on Americans because stopping is the right, legal thing to do. Attempting to circumvent their procedures might give be fun in a "stickin' it to the man" sort of way, but it doesn't really take us where we want to go.

Re:Thank you!

[voice_of_all_reason]

"Best" is such an overused modifier. How can you be sure that would really be the best way?

I'd imagine the freekin' Hand of God coming out of the sky and obliterating AT&T headquarters might spur them to make the change just a wee bit faster.

Why does contract law allow this?

[Valdrax]

I've always wondered exactly why contract law allows for one (but not both) of the parties to arbitrarily define the terms of what either party is allowed to do under the contract. What's the point of allowing an agreement to be binding that can be completely subverted in meaning at any time?

Colluding with the government

[Anonymous Bullard]

Although most Americans seem to accept this kind of erosion of personal privacy in the name of comrade Bush's long war of terror or simply as the undeniable birthright of large corporations, only a handful understands that these kind of US policies are helping spread the big chill across other continents as well.

Forgetting about hypocrisy for a moment, there was a time when the US would advocate and to an extent even represent personal freedoms in most other parts of the world. Now it's all empty talk in inaugural speeches about the great USA is helping oppressed people regain their freedoms but as it happens most of those people desperately needing american support just happen to be oppressed by so-called allies in this "war of terror, countries like China etc.

For those of us who actually live under undemocratic governments, the fact that american telecoms are helping the government track people and their interests is making it painfully easy for other freedom-hating regimes to impose similar or worse policies which only help chill the personal freedoms even further.

Re:It's time to take action.

[TheGratefulNet]

you want to talk tech to a congresscritter?

really?

you think ANY of them really understand stuff like 'we' do?

(man! I don't know where to begin with that.)

they understand who pays them the most and who controls the votes. you can't EXPLAIN things to them. you can only wave votes or money in front of them. he with the biggest, wins.

Re:sheep

[QCompson]

if you're going to sit around and just carp about privacy policies rather than demanding serious reforms AND regulations in the laws governing personal information then thats exactly what you are...

Good point, but did you see American Idol this season? It was awesome!

Public wireless for anything illegal

[NineNine]

No big deal... if anybody wants to do anything illegal online, or even look at questionable material, it's simply a matter of using your local municipal wireless network. The only thing the feds will find out will be the MAC address and the time said content was accessed.

Re:sheep

[Red Flayer]

"are you people stupid? "

No.

"you must be, the government just announced it spent 30 million of your money to buy exactly this type of information. in my mind thats the ultimate indignation, they broke the law, and operated against my interests using my cash."

Yes, we must be stupid because the government did something we don't like.

"if you're going to sit around and just carp about privacy policies rather than demanding serious reforms AND regulations in the laws governing personal information then thats exactly what you are..."

Well, it sure as hell beats sitting around and carping about people carping about the problem. How do you know that no one posting here isn't making serious efforts to get these problems fixed? How do you know whether or not I met with my NJ state senator last week regarding this issue? How do you know that I haven't been calling my US Senator to discuss, following up with letters?

You don't know jack about what actions other slahdot contributors are doing, so pipe down.

In short, by your definition of stupid, you're twice as stupid as the people you complain about. Why don't you take some action instead of sitting on your rear? Or even better, organize people to take action as a group instead of whinging about the complainers?

Re:It's time to take action.

[gstoddart]

This is exactly the treachery that leads to companies going under...You f*ck the consumer, you get f*cked right back.

Well, it's a nice theory. In practice, it doesn't mean a damned thing. Cranky consumers can't do anything to a company like AT&T, not really.

If you explicitly refuse this new privacy policy, do you really believe that will cause them to purge your records? No, they're gonna retain what they have already even if it violates their previous policy.

What if you can't change? Live in a place where there is exactly one provider of broadband? Think you'll give up your high-speed just to try and punish AT&T? (And if you do, they're gonna keep what they have.)

Now that they've said this, and now that they're gonna track everything, your assent to their privacy policy will become irrelevant.

Since they operate much of the backbone, what is to stop them from passing on information about people with whom they don't actually have a current/past business relationship? Nothing, they'll still be passing on their routing data which covers people who could not possibly have consented to the privacy policy. International data gets routed through AT&Ts trunks.

Hell, I live in a whole different country (Canada), and my cell-phone company (Rogers) is associated with AT&T. Which probably means that some if not all of my own damned information is probably going to flow south of the border. Which fscking Congressman am I going to fskcing contact to complain about this? Oh, wait, that would be absolutely fsking noone, that's who.

Do you think the government is going to legislate/intervene/say anything? They want this kind of things more than ever. If a company makes you sign a contract that says "we can do anything we want", the current administration has only to gain from this. They're more than happy to extend the territoriatility of their laws with little regard -- despite that if any other country tried to extend their laws in the same way, the US would be screaming bloody murder.

AT&T's decision to do this affects way more people than the number of people who are going to be asked to agree to this privacy policy. It's probably going affect me personally, and I don't have a business relationship with them. And probably a whole lot of other people.

Re:SSL Sites Are Becoming A Must

[NakedPenguin]

The problem with this is that SSL has been arbitrarily tied to "certification," which is the biggest racket on the internet. A grand gets you a certificate and allows users to visit your encrypted site without getting an OMG IDENTITY THEIVES message. If you don't want to shell out for this, forget about running an ecrypted site. Yes, these two things (encryption and trust) should be separate. But they're not.

Re:In other words...

[gstoddart]

As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests,

Translation: "Everything has its price, including our souls and our integrity as a member of the private sector."

Soul? Integrity? We're talking about a friggin' corporation, they don't have souls or integrity. If the steering comittee/board/whatever votes that it is in the best interests of the shareholders/themselves to do something, that's about the full extent of actual morality which applies.

A company could have a mission statement which mandates that the board behave within a proscribed set of moral codes (like "The Body Shop" not testing on animals), but one should never actually acribe moral actions to a corporation. Least of all, one as large as AT&T.

Re:It's time to take action.

[hackstraw]

Anytime anybody calls me using AT&T, my phone number appears in those records. And since I am not an AT&T customer, I have not agreed to their privacy policy. Is there any legal remedy for this?

All "privacy policies" are bullshit. They all say at the end of them something in legalese like: "We reserve the right to change our mind at any time".

Personally, I believe that _WE_ as individuals should create our own privacy policy and make businesses/corps sign it.

The problem is that no business or corporation or whatever would sign our privacy policy. The rights of individuals have been officially lost as far as I can tell.

Re:It's time to take action.

[megaditto]

From GP:

Also explain to [legislators] that your privacy is important to you and that you want them to support as many privacy bills as they can.

Currently the mantra If you are not a terrorist/paedophile/Mexican, you have nothing to hide and you'll have no privacy when the terrorists win seems to be the flavor of the day.

Or as one prominent FoxNews commentator puts it, the American People would rather the Govt. collected their records than their remains.

 

Of course, if that doesn't work, just ditch AT&T. I know there is enough competition out there to cripple them.

As the parent (bleh-of-the-huns) said, such a move will not impact ATT's bottom line. If anything, it will save them bandwidth costs as those customers that tend to be privacy-aware also tend to consume more of their all-you-can-eat subscription plans than the sheeople customers.

Re:It's time to take action.

[Firehed]

Using an ISP that makes use of AT&T's infrastructure? Hoo-boy, what a change.

Why bother with a privacy policy at all?

[gorbachev]

Wouldn't it just be cheaper for AT&T to rewrite the privacy policy as:

"You have no privacy. Your data is ours. You have no rights."

Rather than spend tens of thousands of dollars to pay lawyers to draft some marketdroir-laden crap everyone knows is complete bullshit.

I'm so hoping I'll get contacted by an AT&T salesperson in the next few months. I think I'd enjoy the conversation tremendously.

Re:Public wireless for anything illegal

[EvanED]

Each Mac Address is traceable to a specific manufacturer, who can then determine the lot number your card from. Once they determine the lot number, they can determine who they sold that lot to ... continuing on, they contact the laptop manufacturer ... record of purchase ... your ass in a sling.

Which is COMPLETELY foolproof, especially with all the networking equipment out there that lets you flash your MAC address.

Oh wait...

Re:*Sigh of relief*

[friedmud]

You know that you _can_ have a local phone... with _no_ long distance whatsoever right??

This is why my wife and I did in order to keep 911 service... even though we used our cell-phones 99% of the time. We've since dumped even that... moving to 100% cell-phones... the main reason being that the home phone was nothing but a spam machine.... we never gave the number out to anyone yet _many_ companies stilled called night and day trying to sell us stuff. We no longer have that problem...

Friedmud

Re:It's time to take action.

[Mister Whirly]

If I am not a terrorist/pedophile/Mexican (and I am not), they have no reason to be spying on me...

Re:Effective tool

[qazwart]

So far, the only thing that the current administration has done with the information the NSA has gleemed from their taps is track down journalists in order to find the government sources of their leaks.

Unless you equate a free press with terrorism or goverment employees with terrorists, I'm afraid I cannot see the connection.

We are repeating history. In the 1960s, the goverment expanded its role in domestic surveillance in order to fight "left wing terrorism" by radical groups like the Weathermen. Instead, the FBI spent most of their time spying on Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Congressional opponents, and under Nixon people on his personal "enemies list". The Church Commission recommended much of the restrictions that the Patriot Act trampled over in order to prevent government surveillance on citizens who were using legitimate means of opposing government policy.

Now, we removed these restrictions, and guess what? The government is again using its powers to spy on you and me, and not so much on "Islamic Terrorists". After all, the Islamic terrorists are a pretty smart bunch and probably already figured out not to use electronic communications to contact each other directly. Most of their communication now takes place on websites outside of the United States jurisdiction and most of the conversations are encrypted and coded. Users are anonymous and use public computers in various Internet Cafes making it almost impossible to track down these users. Remote logins, foreign anonymizers, and Tor networks make even domestic users hard to trace.

Re:Effective tool

[ceejayoz]

Hell, FISA allows retroactive applications for warrants! All concerns about the speed of the court system at granting warrants sorta go out the window when you can do first, ask later.

There's also the fun stat that they've turned down 5 of 19,000 requests.

If the Administration can't work within a system that allows them to ask permission after the fact and have a 99.9736842% chance of approval, just what are they hiding?

Re:Contract Violation

[ceejayoz]

Unless the old privacy policy says "AT&T can unilaterally change any terms of this policy without notice at any time"

The number of large companies lacking that phrase in their privacy policies can likely be counted on a limbless war victim's fingers.

Re:It's time to take action.

[TubeSteak]

What if you can't change? Live in a place where there is exactly one provider of broadband? Think you'll give up your high-speed just to try and punish AT&T?

A lot of people get by with satellite connection.

I'm not sure why so many people have the notion that DSL & cable are the last word when it comes to broadband.

A satellite connection brings telephone service, TV and the internet to many parts of the world that would otherwise have nothing other than a radio phone.

Re:Mod Mister Whirly's up plz

[Mister Whirly]

Nah, I don't have to. They already spied on me and came to that conclusion...

That is my point exactly. My arugment works just the same as yours - they are both completely stupid and illogical. The only difference is the US government actually supports your statement...

Re:It's time to take action.

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who works for a large retailer, with MILLIONS of customer records and all your purchasing history, I can say that your personal information is well and truely protected (at my company). We have had a few times where customers were overcharged for things, or double billed due to EFT problems, but there was nothing we could do, even though we knew how to lookup their information (a rewards card type thing). We take customer privacy very seriously here, and the people that have access to the customer data don't even have access to it all - it's compartmentalized. And audited regularly. And locked away. And as much as it sucks in the times when we'd like to help our customers, we stick to our privacy policy to the letter, because the trust of our customers is more important than the potential of all the data in our databases.

So not ALL business is out to screw you - granted, some are. /AC so I don't get flamed for advertising or something ...

hotburqa.com here I come

[DesertWolf0132]

Since it is impossible to have your IP traffic travel anywhere on the net without hitting AT&T copper somewhere it is time to flood them with a flood of false positive red flags. Everyone on the net should surf the two things the government has shown interest in of late, porn and the middle east. Visit Al-Jazerra at least 20 times a day. Just keep the browser open and refresh. Make sure you visit the Arabic version. Then go straight from there to porn. If your significant other gets on you about it tell them you are defending liberty. Damn the man! Save the empire! Jihad for the destruction of the purple dinosaur!

Re:It's time to take action.

[kalirion]

And how long do you think before this sort of encryption becomes illegal? Wasn't there some bill/law in the UK that you have to provide the government with all your private keys or face jail time?

Re:It's time to take action.

[rgmoore]

Currently the mantra If you are not a terrorist/paedophile/Mexican, you have nothing to hide

I'm not doing anything wrong when I take a shower or use the toilet, but that doesn't mean that it's OK for the government to monitor me while I'm doing so.

Re:Mindless tautologies

[voice_of_all_reason]

Lucky for you I have my "tactical strategy against islamists" manual with me.

Step 1: Pull all facets of our government out of the middle east. Completely. Let private enterprise handle all trade and relations, under the laws of each respective country.

Step 2: Immediately cease all spending allocated to national security. Shutter the NSA, CIA, and FBI. Let states handle law enforcement. Return all money to The People.

Step 3: US Citizens love their government. "Islamists" lose the major impetus for hating the Great Western Satan. Profit.

Re:Effective tool

[RabidMonkey]

Really? I didn't realize that, since I have not heard of one terrorist activity being prevented by the NSA. After all, what are wiretapped grandmas going to do?

I'm not a fan of the NSA, or any agency that listens to my phone calls etc, but in their defense ... do you think if they caught someone, they'd have a big news paper article about it and have interviews on CNN? I suspect they'll be really quiet about it, so people don't know just how much they listen to, how they do it, etc.

I suspect they've heard a lot of things that has led to many investigations/arrests etc ... but we'll never hear about it.

t.

Re:It's time to take action.

[greg_barton]

I hate to say this, but the only way to stop this is through gov intervention (I wont say regulation because I hate regulation)

Ain't it funny how folks hate regulation until they want something regulated?

Welcome to the left side of the aisle, buddy. I hope you don't hate Liberals. You're one of us now. :)

Re:It's time to take action.

[Moofie]

"You did in effect elect your government"

I am one person. I cast one vote. I didn't elect crap.

"You have an open ballot"

What country are you talking about again?

"In other words, stop with this "The devil made me do it." garbage,"

Huh?

"and vote conscientiously, instead of for more bling, like 99% of you are doing now."

Who are you arguing with? It's sure not me. And where are you seeing 99% voter turnouts?

Re:It's time to take action.

[Anonymous Coward]

you missed one:

anonet - definatly a huge resouce for vpn's see anonet.org