How to Opt Out of AT&T’s Sale of Your Personal Information
Last week, AT&T quietly updated its privacy policy to include details about how it will begin to sell customers' personal data to the highest bidder.
Every time cellphone users check in to their favorite place on social media, post pictures of their food, track their workouts, or simply browse the Internet, they are giving personal information to phone carriers. Last week, AT&T reminded us of this fact when it quietly updated its privacy policy to include details about how it will begin to sell such data to the highest bidder.
AT&T will be selling such customer information as location based on Wi-Fi networks, Web browsing data and mobile app usage, all in the name of providing targeted ads that are theoretically more relevant than those that don’t incorporate such specifics.
Although AT&T is simply joining other companies such as Google, Facebook, Verizon and T-Mobile that have been collecting data for some time now, its position as the second-largest wireless carrier (105 million subscribers) makes the company’s announcement worth noting.
If there’s any good news to be had, it’s that AT&T promises the data will be anonymous and aggregated, meaning customer names and other identifying details will not be included. To opt out of the external marketing data share, users can go to this AT&T page. Keep in mind that customers must opt out from each computer browser or wireless device that they wish to exclude.
Read the letter AT&T sent to its customers last week here.
–Posted by Rosa Trieu
Your support is crucial...As we navigate an uncertain 2025, with a new administration questioning press freedoms, the risks are clear: our ability to report freely is under threat.
Your tax-deductible donation enables us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes the reality behind the headlines — without compromise.
Now is the time to take action. Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and uncover the stories that need to be told.
Environment
When companies want to add new cell phone towers, build on protected land or launch satellites, the agency typically does nothing.
Health & Wellness
Answers to the most common questions people ask about cellphone radiation.
Recent detentions of travelers to the United States—and seizure of their phones and other work-related material—have sparked alarm.
Judges ruled that police and federal authorities are free to seek the location data of cellphone users from telecommunications companies without obtaining a search warrant.
The Apple and Samsung supplier played down the job-loss aspect of the story by making it sound as though employees had been liberated to do less menial work.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.