AT&T’s plan to watch your Web browsing -- and what you can do about it

If you have AT&T’s gigabit Internet service and wonder why it seems so affordable, here's the reason -- AT&T is boosting profits by rerouting all your Web browsing to an in-house traffic scanning platform, analyzing your Internet habits, then using the results to deliver personalized ads to the websites you visit, e-mail to your inbox, and junk mail to your front door. Subscribing to a VPN (virtual private network) service would encrypt your traffic before it hits AT&T’s servers, preventing the Internet service provider from analyzing it. VPNs can degrade Internet performance because they cause traffic to also travel through the VPN provider’s servers, and you have to decide whether you trust the VPN provider more than you trust AT&T. But some Internet users may think a VPN worth the expense.

Consumers can complain to the Federal Trade Commission about privacy violations, but AT&T’s Internet Preferences doesn’t appear to be facing any challenges. When contacted about AT&T’s Internet Preferences, an FTC spokesperson said the commission’s policy is “not to comment on companies’ practices unless it’s part of a lawsuit or report.” For now, AT&T customers who value their privacy will continue to face a tough decision.