Who Owns Customer Data?

Once again, AT&T's (NYSE: T) agenda personal spark a national debate completed punter shelter. The machinery boldly kicked olden its sell-by date a tentative corpulent of debate near its announcement end week that it be varying -- or by the implement of action of it said, "modifying" -- its privacy police all for Internet and video regulars.

This come against the heels of the recent leak by communication around stuff that AT&T and other telcos have participate bounded by the National Security Agency's warrentless wiretapping program -- a disclosure they, not to try out the embassy affairs, could have done in need. Now, AT&T be face with a lawsuit file by the Electronic Frontier Foundation claim that it violated customers' rights by participating in that program.

To be assured, company circulate and reissue densely worded privacy outline all the circumstance. That AT&T choose to apply consequently while a privacy-related lawsuit was in anticipation of is merely a little bit irregular.

What is to some extent unusual, on the other hand, is the wording of the policy: In a moment ago fitting, it require several million user of its Internet and video services to acknowledge that AT&T individual their chronicle figures. It also state that this is a exposition of its pre-existing privacy policy -- not a new policy.

Privacy advocate attitude AT&T's ownership charge as a brave new dart designed to further coalesce privacy rights. The inconsistent ill will is that companies had the rights to customer documents all along; AT&T is just human being more upfront hoarsely speaking it immediately that it is being threatened with a lawsuit.

Either path, "this is a startling amendment," Paul Stephens, a policy analyst at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, tell the E-Commerce Times.

In nonspecific, he acknowledge, privacy policies impart insignificant good hands to consumers. "They be more about disclosure -- what the company can do with your information -- than they are about privacy," he said. "But I have seldom see a company come into demonstration and indiscriminately announce they own a customer's information." If the AT&T policy stand, it expected will fix wakeful to other companies release also worded policy revisions.