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Telecom Analytics: AT&T considers selling usage information; big data status

AT&T has updated its privacy policy, stating that the company may sell aggregate and anonymous user usage information to advertisers. In a blog post, Bob Quinn, AT&T’s senior vice president-federal regulatory and chief privacy officer, noted that many companies are increasingly using customer data to help personalize and improve the products and services they offer consumers.

“We don’t sell your personal information, and we won’t use it (other than to provide and improve your services as discussed above) unless you tell us you want us to do that,” Quinn wrote. To justify the potential sale of consumer usage data to third parties, such as location and Web browsing history among other information, Quinn said that in the Internet world, aggregate and anonymous data can be used by retailers, advertisers and marketing companies to figure out what consumers want in a particular area.

In the post, Quinn notes that Verizon uses anonymous and aggregate customer data to create marketing reports that help other companies better serve their customers.

The new updated privacy policy was posted by the telco on its webpage on June 28. It outlines a couple of new programs it plans to offer and asks users to send comments and suggestions during a 30-day feedback period.

Big data adoption: IBM and the University of Oxford cooperated on a survey of 1,061 companies around the world which showed that 28% of the surveyed companies from multiple industries were piloting or implementing big data projects. The survey divided corporate big data adoption into four phases: educate, explore, engage and execute.

IDC recently conducted an in-depth research study on big data adoption in Australia . According to the study, about a third of Australian organizations surveyed cite big data analytics as essential or critical to their organizations. The study also revealed that more than 80% of the surveyed organizations had either already deployed big data analytics or plan to do so in the next 12 months.

More news from the telecom analytics market:

The telecom analytics series provides weekly insights on trends, new products and other topics that touch on the advantages and monetization opportunities of analytics tools for telecom operators, including big databusiness intelligencecustomer experience analysis and management, business analytics  and network analytics. Also, be sure to check out video interviews about telecom analytics on RCRTV.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.