Verizon Wants To Share Your Personal Information

hyades1 writes "Gizmodo reports that Verizon is sending out notification letters infested with virtually-indecipherable legalese. In their sneaky, underhanded way, they're informing you that you have 45 days to opt out of their plan to share your personal data with 'affiliates, agents and parent companies.' That data can include, but isn't limited to, 'services purchased (including specific calls you make and receive), billing info, technical info and location info.' If you view your statement on-line, you won't even get the letter. You'll have to access your account and view your messages. However, Read Write Web says the link provided there, called the 'Customer Proprietary Network Information Notice,' was listed as 'not available.' No doubt Verizon would like to reassure you that everyone they're going to hand your personal data over to will have your best interests at heart."

Comments

boy am I glad

[peragrin]

that i have AT&T and they won't ever try to abuse me.

Excuse me now I have to go reset my sarcasm meter. for some reason it gets pegged all the time now.

Re:boy am I glad

[davester666]

The summary is blatantly wrong.

Verizon will NOT just hand over your information to other companies.

I am 100% sure that Verizon will demand a bunch of money before these companies get to see any of your personal, private information. Once the companies have made the payment, then they can do whatever they want with your information. And if they make their regular monthly payments, they get access to updated information from Verizon.

Re:boy am I glad

[h4rm0ny]

Bullshit about obligations to shareholders. The shareholders invest their money of their own free will. If they think they've made a bad bargain then they shouldn't have invested or should sell their shares. And it stops there. If someone gives me £500, I'm not obliged to go out and kill their rich grandparent for them. Why not? Because it's against the law and they didn't give me the money on the expectation that I would go out and indulge in unethical behaviour on their part and if they did then more fool them.

Companies don't exist as indivisible entities. Somewhere there are people saying "lets violate people's privacy" and they should be personally held accountable because they are personally responsible.

Re:boy am I glad

[Kozz]

"We don't care. We're the phone company. We don't have to."

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml

Re:boy am I glad

[narcberry]

In the meantime, here's how to opt-out (taken from the mouth of FredicvsMaximvs from the article comments)

- Sign in to the Verizon website.
- On the red bar near the top, hover over "My Verizon." Click on "My Profile." (Don't go over to the sub-menu that pops up.)
- In the second section down, under Phone Controls, there's a link to "View/Edit Privacy (CPNI) Settings." Click on that.
- Voila! Click on the button that says "Don't share my CPNI." Remember to hit the save button before you leave.

Hey Verizon :)

[L4t3r4lu5]

I'm posting here that I'm going to eat all of your staff's pets.

You 15 minutes to reply to this post, or you agree that Bruno the Poodle is my main course.

Oligarchy Only Slightly Better Than Monopoly

[dprovine]

While people will complain about this now, and talk about switching to Comcast or whoever, what will happen next is that Comcast &c. will do the same thing, and there'll be noplace left to switch to.

Since it's unlikely there will ever be any sort of sufficient regulation of this behaviour by the government, the obvious solution is for everybody to use VOIP and run TOR. But that's unlikely too.

It possibly suggests

[mysidia]

That Verizon perhaps has already been doing this information sharing. They just want to stop getting penalized for various marketing activities they undertake.

And court rulings that affirm the new regulations requiring opt-in consent.

So the new regulations are finally making them take notice and be more forthcoming about when they share proprietary information??

Verizon might be on the hot seat right now, but, I won't be surprised if notices like Verizon's or similar agreements start being seen from other carriers.

Re:Which Verizon?

[gEvil (beta)]

Replying to myself. Looks like it is Verizon Wireless. But it also looks like it's fairly easy to opt out of. You can either do it through your settings on the Verizon Wireless website, or via phone at 1-800-333-9956.

Re:Frogs in boiling water

[Ontheotherhand]

I think the subtle irony of your post may be lost on the less British. my personal favourite is the local council that used anti terror legislation to spy on a family who were applying for a school place. Thank goodness commercial organisations cant protect us in this way - yet.

Re:Frogs in boiling water

[ScrewMaster]

Look, I know the UK gets slammed regularly here on Slashdot for CCTV privacy issues and government spying, but at least we have a halfway decent Data Protection Act with teeth. A company pulling this kind of shit wouldnt get 2 steps in the UK. Doesnt the US have something similar to deter blatant abuses like this?

Yes, indeed ... we have Congress ...

its not 'share' its SELL

[TheGratefulNet]

dammit.

file 'sharing' is wrong. or so we're told.

but DATA sharing, if done by multi million corps - that's ok. yeah....

its not sharing, its SELLING.

orwell was right - you can control thoughts via language. give words an incorrect meaning or redefine them and you're halfway there.

similarly, copying bits is not THEFT but copyright violation. again, manipulating our words to make things not quite what they really are.

This isn't new

[Mugsy69]

The court case resulting from the 2007 FCC regs requiring consumers to be able to opt to not have their information shared was finally decided on 2/19. That's what caused this notice to be sent. For more information check out this link to the EPIC website: http://epic.org/privacy/cpni/. It includes links to opt out for both Verizon and SBC.

Re:Frogs in boiling water

[sentientbeing]

Verizon: "But Mr Dent, the privacy opt-out contract has been available in the local telecom office for the last nine months."

Dent: "Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

Verizon: "But the contract was on display ..."

Dent: "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

Verizon: "That's the display department."

Dent: "With a flashlight."

Verizon: "Ah, well the lights had probably gone."

Dent: "So had the stairs."

Verizon: "But look, you found the privacy notice didn't you?"

Dent: "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."