Verizon's Plan To Snoop On Its Customers

digitalPhant0m writes: "A story at the L.A. Times details how Verizon Wireless has started pushing the envelope (or downright abusing it) when it comes to tracking users without their knowledge. The company said, 'In addition to the customer information that's currently part of the program, we will soon use an anonymous, unique identifier we create when you register on our websites. This identifier may allow an advertiser to use information they have about your visits to websites from your desktop computer to deliver marketing messages to mobile devices on our network.' While newsworthy, the rate of privacy abuse revelations over the last few years makes it unsurprising."

Comments

Should Be Illegal

[JimSadler]

This time there surely must be a law that stops this. Mobile devices may pay by the minute for incoming communications. Therefore receiving an unwanted ad is a form of taking and as such must not be allowed. The same could be said of a PC if one has a monetary penalty for receiving too much data.

Re:Should Be Illegal

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't pay for the service, YOU are the product.

Re:Should Be Illegal

[rfrenzob]

Verizon. We're not happy until you're not happy (TM).

No link to opt-out in article?

[gurps_npc]

A good article would have provided a link to opt-out. A great article would have mentioned addons that block it.

Also, this appears to be no different than the standard cookie behavior of google, etc.

Only one way to stop it.

[stewsters]

Glad I dropped Verizon this spring. If you have the option, vote with your money. I don't want to see this catching on.

Re:Only one way to stop it.

[postbigbang]

Better still: hit them in the wallet. Get an all-you-can eat deal with tee mobil if your favorite areas are signal-covered. My bill dropped by 60%. Yeah, I loved Verizon coverage. But they're also a proponent of the end of net neutrality. My strong suggestion: if you're a Verizon customer, vote with your wallet and get the hell out of there. Not that GSM and LTE via t-mobile might be any less fraught with location-based crap, rather, we don't have a vote in America any more: just your $$$.

Abuse?

[GPS Pilot]

If this "anonymous, unique identifier" is a fiction, the "privacy abuse" is obvious.

On the other hand, if the "anonymous, unique identifier" truly is anonymous, where is the "privacy abuse"? We're going to have ads served to us regardless. Better to have ads that are relevant to my interests than random, irrelevant ads.