Backchannelmedia

Associated Press

By DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer

DALLAS--AT&T Inc. will begin requiring its 7 million Internet customers to agree that the company owns their account information and can share it with government or law-enforcement agencies.

Privacy advocates criticized AT&T's move, which takes effect Friday, but the nation's largest phone company said it was merely updating and clarifying its privacy policy.

"The spirit of the privacy policy and the practices have not changed," said Michael Coe, a spokesman for AT&T. "There has been no change to how we collect, use or protect our customer information."

Privacy advocates said it was noteworthy that AT&T was claiming to own customers' records _ and forcing customers to go along.

"That's a significant change and very disappointing as a consumer," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit privacy-advocacy group. "I don't want to have to sign privacy policies I don't like just to get a service."

AT&T made the change as it fights against a lawsuit filed by a privacy group that accuses the company of helping anti-terrorism officials monitor networks without court-approved warrants.

AT&T will require Internet and video customers to agree that the company owns their account information and can share the information with government officials or "to protect its legitimate business interests."

The company did not claim to own customer data under its old privacy policy, which dates to 2004.

Under the new policy, AT&T will collect customers' user names, passwords, charges, payments and online purchases. It will also track their clicks while on sites that AT&T operates in a partnership with Yahoo Inc.

Coe said AT&T will not track Internet use once customers leave the AT&T-Yahoo sites to, for example, conduct a search on Google.com. He said the company would not share details on which outside Web sites or TV stations customers view.

AT&T claimed that its policy is similar to that of other phone and Internet providers, and it is in one respect _ that the company states it will turn over records such as name, address, phone number and e-mail addresses to government or law enforcement agencies in response to a subpoena or court order.

Verizon Communications Inc. also says on its Web site that it releases customer information without their knowledge in some cases, including to comply with court orders or subpoenas or to help collection agencies.

"Customers are concerned about this whole general area, and some are very concerned," said Eric Rabe, a Verizon spokesman. "We think it's important that we make clear what we feel we're obligated to do. We're bound by the law, like everyone else."

At Comcast Corp., spokeswoman Jennifer Moyer said the company would share customer information with law enforcement only if it received a subpoena or a search warrant.

All the companies said they don't sell information to outsiders for marketing purposes.

AT&T, which was formed from SBC Communication's acquisition of AT&T Corp. last year, is accused in a lawsuit by a privacy group of helping the National Security Agency monitor communications on the company's networks without court-approved warrants.

"We want AT&T to respect the privacy of customers, and the government to comply with federal law," said Rebecca Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the group suing AT&T, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

A hearing in that case is scheduled Friday in federal district court in San Francisco, during which company and government lawyers will seek to have the lawsuit thrown out.

Coe said publicity about the NSA case prompted calls from a small number of customers, "and some supported our position; some didn't."