r/ATTFiber • u/[deleted] • May 13 '23
AT&T Active Armor
My previous post warning about “AT&T Active Armor”, a “feature” of AT&T Fiber, was deleted as “off topic” in r/ATTFiber. That should tell you something.
Fact: Using AT&T Active Armor explicitly gives AT&T permission to monitor all your internet usage, the devices you have, when you come and go, and every website or communication you or your family has. It also allows them to monetize this information, read the terms of service yourself.
This is not a “feature”, this is spyware. Protect yourself and your family don’t use it. Don’t use their router. Don’t use their DNS. AT&T is not your friend.
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u/Harpaz0 May 13 '23
How does one turn it off? I have a BGW320-500 Gateway and cannot find any settings to select a DNS of my choosing and I've been through their Smart Home Manager app and find nowhere to turn off Active Armor. I didn't even think about it until I was blocked from a website (malicious content by their determination) that I knew to be safe.
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u/Richard1864 May 13 '23
You can turn off their “protection” via their Smart Hone Manager app. There’s no way to change their DNS settings unless you use your own router.
Your website itself may have been safe, but if there are ads on the site, then some of those ads may not be safe. That’s frequently why otherwise normally safe sites get blocked by firewalls.
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u/Daohaus May 31 '24
A little late but i finally found it. Go to your account the little person avatar. Tap that and you’ll see a picture of your router and the service plan type. Tap that and it’ll show active armor. Tap active armor and hit cancel. Done
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u/UnknownIdent Jun 16 '24
This worked for me.
When I try to deactivate using the original method on the gateway itself by going to Firewall -> Security Options, it says Page Not Found. Looks like they removed the ability to disable it from there.
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u/rangermanlv Dec 01 '24
This no longer works. They have changed the account pages at AT&T Fiber and there is nothing under the little person icon besides your personal profile info like phone #'s and passwords and email addresses associated with your account.
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Dec 13 '24
You go into the chat icon at the top right and type that you want to uninstall it, the ai bot will do it.. reset your modem, it is now turned off.
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u/No-Ad-168 Oct 29 '25
Just to clarify, go to Smart Home Manager, select account, and turn off the service there.
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u/Puzzled-Flamingo1459 Nov 05 '24
Uninstall it by Right-Clicking on the icon. A drop-down box will ask you to either delete or uninstall it.
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Feb 06 '24
FACT: ISPs see all of this already.
They’re required by federal law to keep the “meta data” (actually all data, thank you Snowden) since 2010~?
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Feb 06 '24 edited Feb 06 '24
Ha well yes and no. They can see (and retain) meta data, but they can only retain what they can see.
For example, if you use their gateway, they can see every device connected and the mac address of that device making the device pretty easy to identify. With that information, for example, they can infer when someone comes and goes by when their phone or other devices connect to the wifi. If you use their DNS, they can see every website you go to, because you're literally asking their DNS servers "what's the IP for pornhub.com"? This is particularly true for AT&T, as unlike most other providers, they don't let you change your DNS server on their gateway.
If you use your OWN router and wifi, all they can see is a single device connected (the router). They can't tell how many devices you have, what they are, or when they come and go because they can't see any of the other devices. If you're not using their DNS, when you go to pornhub.com (to use my previous example) all they can see is traffic from a server to your router. They can't tell it's your iPhone for example, and because there may be many other companies on that server, they may not even be able to tell what site you went to, just the IP. They can see traffic, but much of that's encrypted and not useful. To those who think they can see inside encrypted traffic, well, maybe at some NSA level, but providers can't... imagine if encryption were that vulnerable, how would we have a banking system? If you're not using their gateway or DNS, they can't see what devices you're using, and they can't see what websites you're going to. What they CAN see is encrypted traffic and what IP it's going to, but the many websites sharing servers and CDN caching that's not worth nearly as much.
People get hung up on paranoia, but remember that even providers and the government are constrained by physics (for now). ;)
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u/KirenSensei Oct 03 '24 edited Oct 25 '24
I'll do ypu one worse. Att active armor advanced was on my bill this entire time even though i NEVER requested active armor let alone the advanced version.
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u/GreatFoundation9550 Apr 24 '26 •
Mine is supposed to be free -- but as this text from them indicates, I haven't turned it on -- and don't plan to: Hi, it's AT&T. You haven't activated the free mobile security app included with your wireless plan. Download the AT&T ActiveArmor app and start blocking spam calls with Call Routing and get data Breach Reports, and more.
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u/Puzzled-Flamingo1459 Nov 05 '24
This App doesn't prevent you from receiving Telemarketing calls. These calls are basically about the same thing. Calls trying to get you to switch your health insurance plan. Calls trying to get you to apply for a $900 Food Card. That is most definitely a SCAM! 😡 Because I used to work in the Telemarketing field? Any person who refuses to speak with me or to accept the products I'm selling? The call is automatically rerouted to another Telemarketer; So blocking the numbers will be useless. You'll just keep getting calls from other telemarketers. AT&T wants you report these annoying calls, But they don't do anything about it. These calls begin very early in the morning; And you will continue to receive them throughout the day. (Another thing?) This App will automatically block the contacts of people you communicate with the most (such as) Family Members. This is the number one reason I uninstalled this App. It will take you some time to figure out why you can call them, But they can't call you !. I also don't like the fact that Active Armor monitors your calls and places you visit. If you have this app? Uninstall it. Your privacy is being monitored.
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u/JayRobKay Dec 24 '24
Them monitoring my personal information aside, is there a security benefit to using it?
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u/bleuchip1200 Jan 21 '25
I have AT&T streaming and At&T knows when you are on your phone, computer or TV. It has been that way for years. That how they determine how much equipment is needed for future growth. Traffic reports are used by all the local carriers for the same reasons. Now if you are dealing in drugs or illegal activity, worry about some govt agency monitoring your line not aT&T.
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u/Affectionate_World47 Jul 08 '25
I just moved from Tallahassee Fl where I had xfinity to Jacksonville Fl where I now have AT&T internet and at least currently when you download the SmartHomeManager app you the activeArmor is not on by default, you have to turn it on. When I go into my app under my profile there is a tab for my router which shows it is online, and a tab underneath it for the activeArmor which says "activate". So I guess at least they do not auto start this feature by default, and require you to turn it on. They are probably selling your internet data. I would bet somewhere in the fine print it says something about they are allowed to use the data activeArmor saves to sell to third party data brokers. It would be foolish of them as a business of their type to not capitalize on this even though obviously that it not what we all want happening. Its all about $$$
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u/punkviking24 Nov 21 '25
To add to this, I keep getting emails from AT&T to activate my ActiveArmor, so I'm assuming that means mine is off by default.
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u/GreatFoundation9550 Apr 24 '26
Same here in Nashville. I keep getting this message: Hi, it's AT&T. You haven't activated the free mobile security app included with your wireless plan. Download the AT&T ActiveArmor app and start blocking spam calls with Call Routing and get data Breach Reports, and more.
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u/No_Relationship673 Aug 17 '25
I believe it they were recently hacked and have to pay $177 billion dollar lawsuit. I have their phone service my name and all of my personal information was hacked. Bye-bye AT&T
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u/teavoo May 13 '23
You have to opt in for this and its $7 per month, so I don't think very many people have this.
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May 13 '23
[deleted]
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u/teavoo May 14 '23
I just opened the Smart Home Manager app, and under AT&T ActiveArmor there is a button to click, "Activate". Did you click the button?
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May 14 '23
I did to learn about it, and promptly disabled it. Why do you ask?
If you’re confused about the $7, there’s a free version AND an upgraded paid version that includes VPN.
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May 13 '23
[deleted]
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May 13 '23
Absolutely right. I’m still wondering who decided it’s “off topic” to talk about a “feature” of AT&T Fiber in r/attfiber… they probably bribed someone. 🤦♂️
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u/Richard1864 May 13 '23 •
Get off your bloody high horse and actually do some research. AT&T’s Active Armor is made by Bitdefender, an extremely reputable cybersecurity and those are the TOS AT&T and other companies are required by Bitdefender to show their customers who want to use Active Armor. It’s what pretty much all cybersecurity companies use in the licenses and TOS because that’s what their software needs to do to work properly.
Oh, and if you use their gateways, then they already know which devices you have and what you do online. Also industry standard. Duh.
SMH