AT&T and your information

I debated long and hard with myself whether I wanted to write about it or not. I finally decided that I should. Before even going further, if I were a customer of AT&T, I would cancel my subscription with AT&T. That is the moral of the story.

We have been brought up with the notion that our personal information was, well... personal and private and nobody could disclose it without our explicit permission. Not anymore. AT&T has changed the rules of the game and have revised their privacy policy stating that they now own the customer data as reported by Reuters. Understandably it has created a huge furore among privacy advocates (including yours truly). Given this revision AT&T would be under no obligation to inform us as their customers if they sold the data or handed it over to the government for "National Security".

But really, do we have a choice here? I am sure AT&T has set a precedent and other companies will follow suit. Those who won't will face the full wrath of the government and maybe be forced out of business. Unless you and I come up with another means of communicating securely and privately, I think we should all get used to the notion of not having anything private. We can go on debating about this to no end, but I think this is an irreversible chain reaction.

Its hard to imagine this sort of thing happening in times of globalisation and especially in America which I heard is the catalyst and propenant of globalisation. I think I should start looking for a phone service which does not have office in the US, though I think it will be a futile search.