For as little as $29 per month, AT&T's GigaPower users can opt out of having their web sessions tracked and injected with targeted ads drawn from their browsing histories. Still, the extra cash won't keep all of a GigaPower user's information private.
AT&T has expanded its gigabit-per-second service from Austin, Texas, to Kansas City. To bring down the cost of the service to its $70-per-month price tag, AT&T indicated that it needs a one-year commitment from each of its subscribers and the ability to raise organic ads for each one of them. The fiber optic service's 1-Gbps speed lets users download an HD movie in 36 seconds and an HD TV show in 3 seconds, the company says.
The data AT&T is farming to feed those organic ads comes from the search terms subscribers use, the ads they see, the web pages they visit and the time they spend on each of those pages. AT&T says it will respect the privacy of secure connections, however.
"You won't necessarily receive more ads when you are online, but those you do see may be more suited to your interests," says AT&T. "If you search for concert tickets, you may receive offers and ads related to restaurants near the concert venue. After you browse hotels in Miami, you may be offered discounts for rental cars there."
AT&T says subscribers are routed to its "Internet Preferences web browsing and analytics platform." For consumers who shell out the extra $30 per month for a bit of privacy, AT&T won't route their IP addresses to its browsing and analytics platform.
For those happy to pay up for privacy, paying that extra $30 bucks will only shield them from targeted ads -- it won't protect them from having their information used for "other purposes."
"If you chose not to participate in the AT&T Internet Preferences program, your Internet traffic is not routed to the Internet Preferences analytics platform," says AT&T. "AT&T may collect and use web browsing information for other purposes, as described in our Privacy Policy, even if you do not participate in the Internet Preferences program."
AT&T has toyed with targeted ads in the past. While it decided to free its network from the use of supercookies -- persistent trackers installed at the network layer -- the company stated that it was far from done with using targeted ads.
"If and when we start a mobile Relevant Advertising program, customers will be able to opt out of receiving mobile Relevant Advertising, and also be able to choose not to have the associated numeric code inserted on their device," said AT&T spokeswoman Emily Edmonds back in November 2014.
