Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Verizon Wireless Changes Privacy Policy

Posted by samzenpus on from the changing-the-rules dept.

First time accepted submitter flash2011 writes "Recently Verizon changed its home internet TOS to by default share your location with advertisers. Now Verizon Wireless has also changed its privacy policy to by default share your web browsing history, cell phone location and app usage as well. Whilst there have been a few stories on these changes, internet forums have largely been quiet. Where is the outrage? Or have we just come to accept that ISPs are going to sell our personal information and web browsing habits?"

12 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Re:There is no such thing as God. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    yes
    we must impeach Verizon
    worst president ever.

  2. Use a firewall by ZP-Blight · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's what I do on my android phone.
    I have DroidWall installed and I simply block unwanted "services" from internet access.
    There's other alternatives on android, such-as "freezing" services.

    --
    Zoom Player Lead Dev.
    1. Re:Use a firewall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Is a firewall particularly useful in this instance. All of the information that they are providing to third parties comes between your phone and Verizon's first gateway. They don't need to install an app. They can just watch the information as it flows through their pipes.

    2. Re:Use a firewall by gimmebeer · · Score: 3, Informative

      A firewall won't prevent your ISP from telling advertisers that you like to google Nike shoes and them then targeting you with advertisements... that is information upstream of your local connection. At best, you could use it to try to block ads from certains domains from loading. SSL or a VPN is a better alternative, but it's not always available. At the end of the day, it's just your ISP selling you to advertisers to make even more money at your expense. The outrage is present, there are simply fewer real alternatives these days.

    3. Re:Use a firewall by niftydude · · Score: 3, Informative

      That doesn't work - they are basically using their routers to snoop on the traffic as you browse. The only way to prevent that is to use a vpn to some proxy somewhere, but then whoever supplies internet to that proxy can snoop on that traffic...

      --
      You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
    4. Re:Use a firewall by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Informative

      A firewall won't prevent your ISP from telling advertisers that you like to google Nike shoes and them then targeting you with advertisements...

      Well, an outgoing firewall can help prevent malware (which ISPs love to install on your equipment) from getting out. But there's an easier way, if you're concerned about your browser habits being tracked by your ISP. For example, you like to use Google for your search, just type this into your Location bar:

      https://www.google.com

      End-to-end encryption keeps them from knowing squat about your browsing habits other than the fact that you prefer Google. Of course, Google knows all.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    5. Re:Use a firewall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      While https everywhere will prevent them from knowing you Google Nikes, it won't prevent them from knowing you hit Google.com, and then hit Nike.com. That information is still quite valuable.

  3. Re:Opt out by dukeblue219 · · Score: 4, Informative

    vzw.com/myprivacy

    Just login and click a few buttons. It was actually really quick and painless for me.

    --
    -Ted http://www.freemathhelp.com/
  4. Re:New anti-privacy trends? by alostpacket · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason it's valuable to advertisers is that it improves what's called "conversion rates." On a typical ad buy of say 100,000 impressions, you might get 1-100 people actually buying the product after seeing the ad. That percentage is called the "conversion rate", and it's tracked thoroughly. There are also two types of ad campaigns: acquisition and awareness. When most people think about advertising, they think about acquisition -- the ads meant to get people to actually buy the product not long after seeing the ad.
     
      Awareness is harder to track, but it also benefits from targets ad buys (and is also tracked to the fullest extent that they can). If I want people to remember my sports store the next time they need new cleats or sports clothes, it helps if my ad is shown to people who like football.

    Whether this is good or bad is up to you, but I'm just trying to explain the motivations behind targeting.

    --
    PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
  5. Re:New anti-privacy trends? by Solandri · · Score: 3, Informative

    Monetize is the wrong word (and I hate it because it's an unnecessary made up marketing word to boot). The correct word is exploit. Companies have become very customer hostile, while continuing to play up marketing that tells you how fantastic they are and how wonderful your life will be if you use their services. So there's also issues of hypocrisy and false advertising.

    No, from an advertising standpoint, this is customer-friendly. Assuming you're going to be showered by ads anyway in today's media, do you want to be showered by ads 90% of which don't interest you? Or do you want ads which interest you 75% of the time? I buy a lot of computers for client businesses. I want to be informed when Dell or some other major manufacturer holds a sale. Being able to better target ads is customer-friendly - it's win/win. It's not hypocritical, nor is it false advertising (indeed, showering you with ads saying all these products will make your life better, when 90% of them don't even interest you is more false).

    Where this is customer-hostile is on the issue of privacy; nothing to do with the advertising. If I want to be informed of certain types of ads, I should have to give my consent to be tracked that way. Making it the default is making violating my privacy the default.

  6. Opt-out Link by Orphaze · · Score: 4, Informative

    I just received an e-mail about this a few days ago. Here is the link you can use to opt out of this:

    www.vzw.com/myprivacy

    Login with your account info, and you can then opt out all of the phone lines on your account. Be sure to get all three separate options on that page.

  7. Re:Is it even really worth fighting anymore? by shadowfaxcrx · · Score: 1, Informative

    And their defense is that the data is anonymous. It's not a privacy violation if no one knows that it's *you* who was looking up the medical stuff.

    And of course you can easily opt out.

    As to the back door to allow the government to analyze the data without warrants. . Erm. . You know that's already been going on for years, secretly, right?

    http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/06/att-whistleblow/

    --
    "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."