How much would you pay for privacy?

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

AT&T is about to find out how much customers in San Francisco will pay for a faster Internet and whether they will pay with their wallet or their privacy.

The company recently launched GigaPower, which it says is so fast customers can download 25 songs in less than a second, according to an article in SFGate. The service is priced at $139 a month or $110 a month; to get the lower price, customers must agree to allow AT&T to monitor their browsing habits through its Internet Preferences program. The plan is to compile the information to sell higher-priced personalized advertisements.

Sound familiar? This approach will pit AT&T against free Internet services such as Google and Facebook, which also use customers' online activities to sell customized advertising.

AT&T is targeting online gamers and users of video-chat services such as Skype, the article said. In other words, it will target users who have a...