AT&T rewrites rules: (As of This Friday) Your data isn't yours

AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours
David Lazarus

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials.

The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."

The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service -- a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers' recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/21/BUG9VJHB9C1.DTL&type=business

K&R!!

:mad:

Get a local ISP DSL service, then get VONAGE if you must have a landline. find a cell phone service that DOES NOT nor will it share your information without your permission.

If it comes down to it, we should write our own contracts to Telecommunications Companies that want our business. If they can not agree to your terms then they dont get your business, if the violate the agreement you have made with them you should beable to sue their ass off. A CONTRACT is a CONTRACT and you dont have to be a massive corperation to do this...

Watch, next it will be the internet. By the end of this year you will see it start to happen and its happening faster because they fear Bush will be impeached..and we all hope so.

I HAD remained loyal to them all these years, but ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

The problem is I had to put my name and phone number etc...


Dear AT&T

https://www.consumer.att.com/contact/form

I am ENRAGED that you have #1 violated the privacy of Americans who have done no wrong by providing information to the NSA program without DEMANDING that they produce a WARRANT to justify SPYING on Americans for no other reason than the fact that this administration does not respect the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Because they control both the House and Senate they have the power to violate our rights, but WHY do you have to go along with it? Don't you have even one SHRED of REAL patriotism?

NOW you are suddenly exempting yourself from the rule of law by changing your privacy statement to cover your actions in the future? I guess you really are thick with the administration because your behaviors are mirror actions of theirs.

Expect a LOT of people to be contacting lawyers between now and Friday.

I have remained loyal to AT&T through so many things, but your selling out of Americans to an administration that sees itself as above the law is the last straw.

I just can't believe this is happening in America.

Check it out on buyblue.org

http://www.buyblue.org/directory/a

check out Verizon on buyblue.org


http://www.buyblue.org/directory/v


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE REPUBLICANS...


$1,115,213

$ 581,750 AT&T
on edit.... $ 1,115,213 Verizon is not part of AT%T, but still contributes to R
$ 1,812,815 SBC

_____________ caching!

$ 3,509.778 http://www.buyblue.org/directory/s


$ 3.6 MILLION!!

Thanks Tigress DEM for the information. Glad to see you use buyblue.org as well. I was just about to take a peek at their stats on AT&T/Verizon and the like, when I saw your posts.

"Privacy Policy Frequently Asked Questions" they don't even hide what this is:

http://help.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=3672
AT&T may disclose Account information to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others or respond to legal process. AT&T has an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare, whether it be an individual or the security interests of the entire nation. If and when we are asked to help, we do so strictly within the law and under the most stringent conditions.

Seriously. Why would ANYONE agree to this? I hope they lose a gazillion customers.

this shit. we don't use the long distance anyway because of our cell phones. only reason we have the land line is for her work

Really, my jaw is on the floor. No, seriously. Couldn't see this coming at all. Honest and true.

You don't own yourself. You belong to the corporate state. That's the 21st century for you.

:eyes:

Vote with your wallet!

Time to impeach Antonio Scalia because he has enacted an impeachable offence.

Time for a class action suit against AT&T.

AT&T is the only choice for local land line service here. I'm hoping the Cal AG goes off on them. California forced AT&T to nix their mandatory arbitration rules for customers in this state (against the law here.) If not, I'll sign up as a class action plaintiff in a New York minute.

I've already told them how unhappy I was with this change and that I am considering dropping my land line all together and will never buy any product from them again,

Cel phone and Internet. I ditched SBC (now AT&T) over a year ago in a boycott of businesses out of Texas.

We can't get a cell signal for a radius of 1/4 mile or more from our house and neither cable nor DSL come our here, so we have to keep a land line. It drives me nuts since there is only one option for local service and that option is Verizon.

AT & T is doing this because of a lawsuit... by the way.

At present they have a scapegoat company between them and the ax...

Comcast is now offering in our area a digital voice option for its cable and internet customers for $39.99! It includes unlimited local and long distance calling and essentially a "home line". I refuse to give my money any longer to AT&T....EVER AGAIN!

:sarcasm:

We already know the bastards give records of our calls to the NSA.....

feeds the other. You're right Supersedeas. And it just keeps growing.

:evilfrown:

secrets, that they got by scanning their own networks, for their own profit under those rules.

How long would they continue to do this if the CEOs of leading corporations spoke out against it.

Countdown to successful class action begins...now.

NOPE. The only successful way around this is to get every AT&T customer who has brains to understand what this means to bail out of their service and bankrupt their business by showing them that the US Market will NOT tolerate such behavior by someone who is taking OUR money to provide a service and then stabbing US in the back by conspiring with the government to deprive US of our rights.

for pretty much all of the companies I do business with. Every week at least one of them sends me a new "Terms of service changes" notice. Multiple pages of fine print that essentially say, your privacy is important to us, blah blah blah, we share with our affiliates, blah blah blah, this probably includes every organized crime syndicate in the Northern and Southern Hemisperes, blah blah, you can opt out for a few weeks by sending all your personal information and account numbers to this PO Box in Deleware, blah blah. I can'yt keep track, but it seems like all of them change our terms of service several times a year.

Aside from shutting off all my utilities, cancelling everything and moving to Antarctica there is no escape - not even in death. God knows Congress isn't about to do anything.

which puts this kind of information in the "need to know" catagory. Groups your provider works with that "need to know" your information to provide your service are mentioned in these policies.

BUT the govt DOESN'T meet the "need to know" criteria unless it produces a warrant with a reason stating why they need to know according to pre-bush USA laws.

However in this case they aren't talking about a "need to know" within their own business. AT&T is switching gears entirely. They are saying your private information does not belong to you now.

It is entirely illegal, but with the Supreme Court stacked against US I don't know if we can win this one... except by convincing every AT&T customer to bail.

Because the more fine print there is in a consumer contract, the less likely it is that the consumer will READ that contract.

I have had college-level reading comprehension since THIRD GRADE, and *I* can't wade through consumer contracts.

They are designed to ensure we DON'T read them.

there is a certain trust that these people will abide by the general law and good business practises that encourage respecting your customer's privacy.

I think we should plaster every available surface in America with the truth we find in DU until EVERYONE GETS IT.

MAYBE we could make paper machie Statues of Liberty and write down the facts and leave them in public places to spread the word.... hey, that is a good idea. Cheap, uses renewable resources and doesn't violate laws by marring up the environment. Could use old bottles of dishwashing soap and leave it partially open to put in updated flyers from time to time.. hand them out to people in parks or door to door.

LIBERTY NEWS SERVICE

"I think we should plaster every available surface in America with the truth we find in DU until EVERYONE GETS IT."

AMEN!

No AT&T in our house. ratbastards

I'd love to ditch the rat-bastards(at&t), but who can we turn to?
Is there a company that doesn't attempt to screw you every time you're not looking?

I remember:"We're the phone company, we don't care, we don't have to"-Lily Tomlin

They don't have their own lines, so depending on where you live, some portion of your business goes to whatever telco they buy access from. Their rates are actually better than those we got from AT&T, though I don't know how they'd compare if you make a lot of LD calls. They contribute a portion of the bill to various liberal causes. AND - BONUS!!! - they're sending us a George Bush doormat as a signing bonus. Can't wait to tromp through the muddy fields and then wipe my feet on his smug face.

Qwest, as I understand it, refused to cooperate with the NSA. They don't provide service around here, so they weren't an option for us.

buyblue!


http://www.buyblue.org/directory/w

Hell, I'll save $25.00 right off the top.
That's how much at&t has raised their rates since
the time we signed up with them.

Thanks for the tip.

I have them for both long distance and wireless. Additional bonus is new customers get a coupon every month for a free pint of Ben & Jerry's.

I read recently (at DU, come to think of it) that Working Assets is now a wireless provider, so you can look into that aspect as well.

Hekate

What hell do they have to gain from this? People are going to drop them so fast its gonna make FEMA look slow. :sarcasm:

I say we deregulate the communication industry and give phone customers options!

The numbers that were used to identify people during the, yet again, persecution of the Jews carried over to become our SS numbers. Social Socurity, hmm, SS??

"The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 stipulates that cable and satellite companies can't collect or disclose information about customers' viewing habits.

The law is silent on video services offered by phone companies via the Internet, basically because legislators never anticipated such technology would be available."

Of course AT&T is trying to talk it's way around this. But it looks like it's time to update The Cable Comm. Act of 84 to include video services offered by phone co. via the internet. Which would at least mean that some of their new bylaws wouldn't hold up in court.

What was that? Back in the 60's... and DisneyLand had video conference phones in the late 70's or 80's.....


(Maybe the new bar for politicians who want our vote is the ability to connect the dots and work on their ability to anticipate the common sense outcome in various situations.)




< ... The law is silent on video services offered by phone companies via the Internet, basically because legislators never anticipated such technology would be available." >



NO ONE COULD HAVE ANTICIPATED THE BREACH OF THE LEVYS....

....and politicians in the same breathe? LOL In general, they're not compatible. That's why it's up to the public, or at least part of it, to teach them common sense. Such as, you put your shoe on your foot not in your mouth, you zip up your fly especially before meeting with world leaders at an international press conference and that you don't need Condi's permission to go to the bathroom. And most of all, that personal privacy means just that.

Speaking of AT&T, I was wondering, how is what they are doing any different then identity theft? Or how about extortion? Yup, as soon as you sign their new policies, their lawyers will say you just gave them permission to do whatever they want...including monitoring your actions, handing it over to the govt. and other agencies, or just selling it to the highest bidder if they want. But what exactly are your choices? You can drop AT&T. Except, what happens when they have legal connections and rights to the 3rd party that is your new provider? What happens when even the use of your cell phones are affected by them, then what are your options? It's like the old joke of the farmer who holds a shotgun to his pregnant daughter's boyfriend -- "marry her or eat lead."

For what it's worth dept...there is more and more talk in the news about hackers stealing your info. on the net, by phone, etc and what the law needs to do about it. LIkewise, all someone has to do is go through your trash and they've found a bonanza of info. just from bills alone that most people don't even bother to tear up. And in many places, this is not nec. against the law -- because once you throw out your trash, whatever is in it, is no longer yours. However, one major difference here is that in those cases you stand a chance to file charges if you can prove criminal intent - namely with the issue of I.D. theft. But with AT&T, they're wrapping themselves in Teflon and putting themselves above the law. They're selling out their customers and covering their arses at the same time.

Fuck them. I will never use their services again.

Hell I'm trying to get my parents to switch to Vonage.

they are not free to "fuck" with you consensually because the *ush administration has them by the balls and they cannot hear your cries for prudent action because their head is firmly planted deeply in the big red rethuglican elephant ass.

RCN here in NYC. I want to first ask RCN directly about their policies regarding privacy and sharing their data with the government.

When we get hit with another terrorist attack, the infrastructure will already be in place for the bush admin to go after not only terrorists, but the lefty traitors who enable them. Tommy Franks was right--one more attack and it's the end of the Constitution (what's left of it).

If I pay for it, I own it, right? So if I can't own what I pay for, then I'm not paying anymore.

...for charging me $5.95 for NOTHING! I'd dump them for this.:mad:

Even if I made ZERO calls, I was still getting charged $5.95 per month, a change they didn't publicize to well.

AT&T has SUCKED for years.:grr:

for exactly the same reason years ago also, Haven't missed their long distance service one bit

Looks like I'm going to go shopping for other options. Stupid <expletive deleted> have their heads so far up their asses they can see the chewing gum they swallowed back in 1985. I hope every one of their customers drops them.

:grr:

I dumped AT&T quite some time back myself, but with all the mergers, takeovers, etc., I no longer know WHO are my actual phone carriers.

Didn't some company buy out AT&T, then change its name to AT&T and then buy out Bell South and Cingular???


On edit: * grammar is catching :scared:

These Corp. whores care little about their customers anyway. Most of them act like Pay or Go away is their customer policy. Whose surprised whatever Bu$hCo wants Bu$hCo gets.

FUCK YOU AT&T, you fascist pigs.

I can't even tell if my cell company (Cingular) is or is not AT&T now! Bah.

:kick:

HERE is an article that sorts things out... Verizon does own Cingular...so they AREN'T part of AT&T, but they still contribute buckets of cash to rethugs....


http://www.internetviz-newsletters.com/artelcom/e_article000356609.cfm?x=b11,0


SBC Acquires AT&T, Verizon Pursues MCI, Merger Mania Is Here

Profit reports a mixed bag, satellite TV subscriptions increase by 14%,
Adelphia loses subscribers, SDG&E offers high speed through power lines

by Peter Rodriquez, Editor - The Dial Tone


<much more in article>

Sounds like some of the above posters are getting land line service from a company currently calling themselves AT&T. Yet the wireless AT&T is owned by Cingular now. Are AT&T under Cingular or the other way around? OMG. It's like this administration, they change around everything so often, you really have to study it, to understand it. That is what they want, too. Talk about uggghh.. mission accomplished. What a mess. Another freakin' mess... from the weather, right down to our own damn telephones.

Antarctica sounds good right about now, unfortunately unrealistic. Jeez. No need to sleep in order to have a nightmare, ey?.

AT&T bought McCaw Cellular in the 90s and merged it with their own cell service. Renamed it AT&T Wireless.
AT&T (Upper case... the old Ma Bell long distance company) spun it off as a separate company in the early 2000s, so that CEO Armstrong could have a good sale on the IPO. He got screwed by Meryll Lynch, but bailed to AT&T Broadband (Which is a merger of TCI, Cablevision, and Media One), who then was spun off from AT&T and bought by Comcast, with Armstrong at the helm.

AT&T Wireless, now it's own company, get's acquired by Cingular.
Cingular is a joint venture between Bell South and SBC, which is a merger of those two cell companies...hence the name.
SBC buys AT&T, and renames everything at&t (lower case) because of the name recognition.
SBC is about to complete purchase of Bell South, making Cingular a wholly owned subsidiary of at&t.
In a few months, Cingular will be renamed to....wait for it...at&t wireless.

See? Easy!:D

They USED to deliver cable TV service in my area.... and then they "changed their name" to Charter.

Does Charter have a relationship with AT&T?

(If we ended corporate personhood, we would end things like this as well....)

I know there were essentially 3 cable companies that became AT&T Broadband, and I thought it might be Cablevision. So many cable providers out there called themselves that. Did you ever get a AT&T BB bill? That would answer it. Another possibility is that Charter bought some of Comcast's territory, to offset the price Comcast paid for those 3 companies.

I agree with Corporate Personhood. Once that Amendment is in the Constitution, then the content providers (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc) won't have reign over our information anymore, not to mentionn this shit from my own employer!:puke:

online petitions, boycott web rings, hate mail, blogging smear campaigns.

Most of all Industrial espionage against the company. leak anything any and all internal on public forums. Since they are obviously anti-freedom anti-privacy that theirs away! These do not deserve any rights.

Screw them- they're not getting any more out of me.

video we watch from being recorded by ISPs/fiber-optic providers.

Remember this is the "telco" acquired ATT.

Now hear this: we're under attack but the enemy has tipped his hand. They are fully behind the
neocon tyranny movement...citizens are ancillary, mere dots on the map of total information control
(TIC). These telcos are "tics" carrying "tic borne diseases";)

I'd say there isn't much reason to to anything with this company under any circumstances.

Great post.

lease from AT&T. Does this mean all the business data, financial and government data that flows though all these special circuits now belongs to AT&T and for their use as they see fit?

If it does, then using anyone else is a futile decision, as everything touches AT&T at some point, weather it is a DS-1 or a OC-192.

I have AT&T landline and I really hate that company but I have dialup internet service.

I hope t-mobile is ok for cell. They suck too in some ways, but are lesser of evils as
far as I can tell.

Sue

n/t

I didn't understand what it meant, but it's tone got to me. Your response confirmed it for me. I may just go back to pen and paper snail mail. This is creeping me out.

Hey if the middle school boys are starting to grow their hair, listen to Zeppelin and look like they are from the seventies, I can go back to communicating by writing...privately.

This country was great for my folks lifetime. They lived in the best 100 years of it. Now it just sucks. Sorry, getting tired and quite frankly I'm sad.

IF AT&T has 70% of it's customers even threaten to walk out on them, and companies that don't want the govt having unlimited access into their business should band together as well ... they will probably rethink this action.

WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO SCREAM LIKE HELL!

Besides, just thought I'd read "one more thread" before I shut down and there it is...

Clinton's national secy, Perry advises Bush to pre-emptively strike the N. Korean missle during testing.

I'm begging God to give me good dreams tonight. The nightmares happen while awake lately.

At least if everyone ditches AT&T they won't have any money to give to the rethug war machine.

This COULD have a happy ending through an entirely consumer based solution.

and they saw a financial dent. hehe..

thanks... and goodnite for real this time, lol.

Earthlink had decent DSL but I think they have Scientology connections.

No longer!

http://www.vonage.com/tos

2.5 Prohibited Uses.

(a) Unlawful. You shall use the Service and the Device only for lawful purposes. We reserve the right to immediately disconnect your Service without notice, if, in our sole and absolute discretion, we determine that you have used the Service or the Device for an unlawful purpose. In the event of such disconnection, you will be responsible for the full month's charges to the end of the current term, including, without limitation, unbilled charges, plus a disconnection fee, if applicable, all of which will become immediately due and payable upon disconnection of your Service. If we believe that you have used the Service or the Device for an unlawful purpose, we may forward the relevant communication and other information, including your identity, to the appropriate authorities for investigation and prosecution. You hereby consent to our forwarding of any such communications and information to these authorities. In addition, Vonage will provide information in response to law enforcement requests, lawful government requests, subpoenas, court orders, to protect it's rights and property and in the case where failure to disclose the information may lead to imminent harm to the customer or others.

http://www.vonage.com/startsavingnow/?type=PaidSearch_Google_Search_14741PaidSearch_Google_Content_14741#

:kick:

...that their corporate logo resembles the Death Star??