AT&T
Flagged · AvoidOne of the largest telecom companies in the US, having a long history of consumer overcharges and mass government surveillance cooperation.
Last updated June 14, 2026
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Issues span:PrivacyConsumerLabor
- In March 2024, AT&T disclosed that data on 73 million current and former customers — including Social Security numbers, account passcodes, and dates of birth — had been circulating on the dark web, likely since 2019. The company denied a breach for years before finally acknowledging it.
- AT&T secretly gave the NSA access to a dedicated surveillance room (Room 641A) inside its San Francisco facility, where splitters copied all internet traffic — domestic and international — and fed it directly to the government. The program expanded to at least eight AT&T buildings across the U.S.
- The FTC sued AT&T for secretly throttling customers on "unlimited" data plans — slowing speeds by up to 90% without adequate disclosure. AT&T settled for $60 million in 2019, one of the largest telecom consumer protection settlements in FTC history.
- AT&T was ordered to pay $80 million to the FTC — part of a $105 million multi-agency settlement — for billing customers for unauthorized third-party charges (a practice called "cramming") and deliberately hiding those charges in bill summaries.
- AT&T spent heavily lobbying against net neutrality protections and was a key contributor to the FCC's 2017 rollback, helping eliminate rules that prevented carriers from throttling or prioritizing internet traffic.
- In August 2024, over 17,000 AT&T workers in nine southeastern states went on strike — the longest telecom strike in the region's history — after the CWA accused AT&T of bargaining in bad faith over wages, forced overtime, and healthcare benefits.
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US Mobile
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- Is AT&T ethical?
- AT&T secretly gave the NSA access to a dedicated surveillance room inside its San Francisco facility, copying all internet traffic and feeding it to the government. In 2024, data on 73 million customers including Social Security numbers was found circulating on the dark web, and the company had denied a breach for years before acknowledging it. The FTC also settled a $60 million case against AT&T for throttling unlimited data plans by up to 90%.
- Why should I avoid AT&T?
- AT&T has been fined over $165 million across multiple consumer protection cases for throttling unlimited data, billing customers for unauthorized charges, and cooperating with warrantless government surveillance. Over 17,000 workers went on strike in 2024 after the company was accused of bargaining in bad faith over wages and healthcare benefits.
- What are the best ethical alternatives to AT&T?
- US Mobile lets you build your own plan across multiple networks at very low cost with no contracts. No-contract MVNOs consistently earn higher customer satisfaction scores than the major carriers and typically save customers $30 to $70 per month.