Receiving photos now counts as data usage? Or AT&T is spying on me...

So I don't have data on my plan, but I have the old school 200 Messenging, which gives me "200 text, picture, video, and Instant Messaging (IM) messages".

I used to have an old flip phone, but swapped my SIM card into a hand-me-down HTC Pure "smartphone" I got from my brother. I've had this active for at least a year with no problems or required data (and in my account info I've seen it have the htc pure as the phone "attached" to my number), as i've purposefully disabled data and wifi on the device, I don't even try to use anything on the device other than phone, texting, and camera. I don't even really send pics myself, just occasionally receive some from friends.

So the day before yesterday I got a Nexus 6 from the Black Friday deal, and was setting it up still without swapping my SIM card over, as I planned to do just like I did with the HTC Pure, with the intention of making sure all data aspects of the phone were disabled before I put the SIm in as I didn't want to have to activate data.

So last night I received a picture from a friend at like 7:45pm, and then at 10:50ishpm I get an email from AT&T (and a text this morning) titled "Smartphone Data Usage Alert for #" with the message:

Smartphones are made for surfing the web, social networking, email and more. Our records indicate your Smartphone does not have an appropriate data plan, so we have added our most popular plan, DataPro 3GB, to your account at $30 a month.

If you would like to select another smartphone data plan, it is easy to do online at att.com, with the myAT&T app, or at a local AT&T store. For additional information about data plan options, visit att.com/dataplans.

We hope you enjoy your new smartphone, and thank you for being an AT&T customer.

I go to my account info and as of now there still isn't a data plan attached to it, but i'll check back again each day to make sure nothing is added.

I do not want data. I will not pay for data just because my phone is labeled a smartphone. The only reason I use a "smartphone" over a flipphone is for the ease of texting. If this plan gets put on my account and is unable to be removed either online or via calling support, I will definitely be cancelling service. If i'm going to be forced to pay $30 a month for data, i'll just switch over to Project Fi with my new Nexus6 where i'll only have to pay for what I use.

So either pictures now count as data or ATT somehow knew I got a new smartphone and preemptively wanted to activate bullshit on me?