You would think the worst thing that happened to AT&T this week was having to cough up $2 million in a settlement with the Department of Justice. You’d be wrong.
Imagine you’re that little girl who broke down in happy sobs at the sight of Sanjaya, or you’re that Clay Aiken lookalike who almost collapsed when his more famous “twin” surprised him on stage at the American Idol finale a couple of years ago. Now imagine you get some spam from AT&T in the form of a text message. OK, maybe you would like it. But a lot of frustrated fans of the show didn’t, and they complained to the phone giant about it this week.
The fans were not charged for the messages, which are illegal in some parts of the world, but not in the United States ... yet.
Getting back to the trouble with the DOJ — AT&T was accused of violating a court order that required the company to separate customer data in divested markets. The government also claimed AT&T was using the data to increase its subscriber base.
