I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, AT&T is forgoing revenue by not spying on its customers, and it’s reasonable to charge them for that lost revenue. On the other hand, this sort of thing means that privacy becomes a luxury good. In general, I prefer to conceptualize privacy as a right to be respected and not a commodity to be bought and sold.
From Schneier on Security: AT&T Charging Customers to Not Spy on Them
Yes and?
It’s a revenue stream, so take away that revenue stream and you need to replace it. You can’t tell shareholders they are losing money for no good reason, and on a purely financial situation noone cares about the ‘right’ of people to not be monitored.
Now the amount you are being charged to not be spied on, that is a different matter. Seems a high figure, although of course it requires another layer of admin that didn’t exist before.
Oh and of course the government would still be able to access anything you do if they wanted to, the ISP’s don’t have the choice of not complying.