By Mike Dano

AT&T (NYSE:T) said it “may” begin selling anonymous information about its customers’ wireless and Wi-Fi locations, U-verse usage, website browsing, mobile application usage and “other information” to other businesses. The carrier said it will protect its customers’ privacy by providing the data in aggregate so it cannot be used to identify an individual. The carrier also said its customers can opt out of the program.

AT&T is not the first company to sell anonymous information about its customers’ location and behavior. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB, Google, NASDAQ:GOOG) and most other Internet companies have long sold such data. In the wireless industry, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) launched its Precision Market Insights business last year, which also anonymizes and sells customer location and usage information. Further, companies such as AirSage and SAP have recently begun selling aggregated location and usage information from wireless carriers.

The sale of such information falls under the “big data” movement, which IDC predicts will grow to nearly $24 billion by 2016.

Read More AT&T prepping sale of customers’ anonymous location information and Web, app usage data – FierceWireless.