To get AT&T’s Gigapower service for $70 a month, customers have to agree to participate in a program called “AT&T Internet Preferences,” which tracks Web browsing information and search terms to serve ads and other offers. Customers who want to keep their privacy will be charged an additional $29 a month. And even then it doesn’t fully prevent AT&T from collecting user data for other purposes, according to the company's privacy policy http://www.ibtimes.com/att-offers-internet-users-privacy-29-more-gigabit-speeds-rollout-1820422
In a way, a step in the right direction in terms of giving consumers (illusory) choice. And at $29 a person, you kind of get a feel for the reason they're so desperate to milk you. Although, I suspect they should be paying US several $k per year to use all the various services.
Maybe they'll aggressively block VPNs, SSH, Tor, etc. Or they might even style them as "theft of service".
Totally agree. They'll make them illegal saying only terrorists use these yada, yada, yada. I think if a candidate for office said, "~ Snipped as per TOS ~ it there is no privacy, never will be, get over it". Even though I'd hate him for pulling my covers. I'd consider voting him cause I know he has the ~ Snipped as per TOS ~ to tell the truth.
Although I do share those concerns, this AT&T plan is different. In that case, using VPN etc would break their pricing structure. But hey, if they were smart, they'd bundle a VPN with their high-privacy plan
