Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on April 29, 2010 at 5:10 pm
The recent focus on the privacy policies of social networks reminded me of the changes to our Privacy Policies made last summer.
When we launched our revamped Privacy Policy last August – we collapsed 17 different Policies into one, plain-language, easy-to-understand set of privacy commitments (take a look at it and tell us what you think). We are proud of our new Privacy Policy, but agree with the FTC and others that privacy policies alone do not really engage consumers in decisions about how information is collected and used across the range of online services. In our Policy, we said we would continue to experiment with ways to improve transparency of our services. Last week we did just that.
We launched buzz.com, a new service linked with our popular Yellow Pages local search site. Using buzz.com, users can get and receive recommendations from friends, or the entire buzz.com community, on local services and retailers. For instance, you can search for a local dentist and find the local listings as well as get the unvarnished truth about them from the recommendations of your friends and other buzz.com users.
Obviously, this kind of service doesn’t just depend on the sharing of information — its entire point is the sharing of information. In fact, one of the most exciting prospects of this service is that you could get recommendations from people you actually know (and therefore can decide for yourself if it is good advice!). As a result, we wanted to make sure that our users understood exactly what they were signing up for. So, we took a new and innovative approach.
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on February 22, 2010 at 11:40 am
By Ellen Blackler, AT&T Executive Director – Public Policy
If the customer is always right, it matters a lot if you are the customer or the product.
I have been shaking my head over Google’s introduction of BUZZ wondering how they could have misread the privacy interests so badly. What were they thinking? Surely any even half-hearted attempt at a privacy impact assessment or rudimentary customer testing would have led them to the conclusion that you can’t just, for instance, make up and publically share peoples’ lists of most frequently emailed contacts without asking them. Sure, lots of people will be happy to have you do it, but lots won’t be. And surely they could have anticipated the privacy advocacy community’s reaction.
And we know they aren’t stupid, they are Google, after all. They have brought us some of the coolest stuff on earth. So this morning, waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the Red Line train to recover from its latest mechanical difficulties at Forest Glen, it hit me. Of course! They are keeping the needs of their customers’ front and center – it’s just that the customer isn’t me, it’s an advertiser! I – or rather, data about me – am the product! It makes perfect sense, and I knew it already. I know Google dominates in internet advertising and aspires to more. I know their whole business plan is to gather ever more and richer data so that it can make advertising even more and more targeted and relevant (and thus charge advertisers more for it).
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on January 28, 2010 at 9:39 am
By Ellen Blackler, AT&T Executive Director – Public Policy
Today is National Data Privacy Day, a worldwide effort to raise awareness, improve transparency and generate dialogue surrounding data privacy issues impacting individuals, companies and governments.
Obviously, this is a good time to review the state of data privacy in the online world and AT&T’s ongoing commitment to the highest standards of data privacy. Last summer, we unveiled our updated and streamlined data privacy policy. Before the policy became final, we provided 45 days for consumer feedback – and improved the policy based on that feedback. Our privacy policy is now written in plain language, is designed around many consumers’ concerns and clearly explains what data we collect, how we collect it, and how we use it. But, we have not rested on these laurels. We continue to look at new approaches to transparency and consumer control.
Later today, I will be participating in a Federal Trade Commission roundtable discussion in Berkeley, California. The roundtable discussion will explore the privacy challenges posed by the fundamental expansion in scope and magnitude of online data collected and used for commercial purposes. In the new world, even where discrete user information is anonymous, the growing capability to accumulate and associate data can result in a highly detailed, multi-dimensional view of a user beyond what is common in the offline world.
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