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Verizon's Plan To Snoop On Its Customers

Posted by Soulskill on from the part-and-parcel dept.

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."

23 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Should Be Illegal by JimSadler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Should Be Illegal by alen · · Score: 2

      and how is it different when google does it?

    2. Re:Should Be Illegal by 0p7imu5_P2im3 · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately, the only way to fight this is with a customer boycott. That is to say that Verizon (and others) will not cease such clandestine activites without their advertisers pulling out.

      The only way advertisers will pull out is with customer backlash, and that means we have to stop buying from companies who use such advertising.

      --
      Resistance is futile. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will become one with the morgue
    3. Re:Should Be Illegal by rfrenzob · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

    4. Re:Should Be Illegal by JohnFen · · Score: 2

      It's different because with Google, you're paying for the services your using with this personal data and everyone knows that's the deal. With crap like what Verizon is doing, they're double-dipping, making us pay twice (once with money, once again with our personal data) and not being clear that they're selling you out.

      Verizon is being incredibly sleazy here.

    5. Re:Should Be Illegal by BiIl_the_Engineer · · Score: 2

      Which president signed the DMCA.

      Both parties allowed it to get to the president.

      Which president created the most expansive government intrusion into our personal life, aka Obamacare?

      I would not consider that the most expansive, or even the most dangerous. Not even close. It has nothing on the TSA or the NSA, which are much more egregious violations of our fundamental liberties, and the latter even happens in broad daylight.

      Which president continues to sign off on FBI, DHS and NSA intrusions into our personal lives?

      All of them played a part.

      Which president treats the Constitution and other federal law as suggestions?

      That I can see? All of them.

      Which president has repeatedly lied about his administration's transparency?

      Plenty.

      That's not to say that Obama isn't an evil scumbag, but all of them are. There's a bipartisan effort to strip us of our basic liberties and shred the constitution.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
  2. No link to opt-out in article? by gurps_npc · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:No link to opt-out in article? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      From http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/faqs/AccountManagement/mobile_ads.html

      Can I refuse permission to use my information for Relevant Mobile Advertising?

      Yes, you can notify us that you do not want us to use your information for Relevant Mobile Advertising by visiting www.vzw.com/myprivacy or by calling (866) 211-0874.

      Note: if you have a multi-line account, you must indicate your privacy choices with respect to each individual line.

      In addition, if you would like to prevent third party advertising entities from using information they have about your web browsing across sites unrelated to Verizon, including the use of this information in the Relevant Mobile Advertising program, you can opt-out at www.aboutads.info.

    2. Re:No link to opt-out in article? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      you can opt-out at www.aboutads.info...

      Using this "opt-out" requires you to "opt-in" to their cookies.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    3. Re:No link to opt-out in article? by Pofy · · Score: 2

      Yes, you can notify us that you do not want us to use your information for Relevant Mobile Advertising by visiting www.vzw.com/myprivacy or by calling (866) 211-0874.

      So the tracking was not at all an anonymous identifier since they obviously can link it to you when you contact them to "opt out".

  3. Only one way to stop it. by stewsters · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Only one way to stop it. by stewsters · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Also, root your phone and install ad-blocking software. Restrict 3rd party cookies, because this will involve a tracking cookie if we are lucky and not some unseen communication.

    2. Re:Only one way to stop it. by postbigbang · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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 $$$.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    3. Re:Only one way to stop it. by PRMan · · Score: 2

      And Sprint is still unlimited.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  4. Immediately following their permissions change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I knew something was up when they changed the permissions requirements on their mobile "My Verizon" app I used to use to pay my bill. The new permissions included, well, access to just about everything on my device. I was understandably not going to put up with that, so I reverted to using their website. Now their website is going to (attempt) to track me and then send the details of my web browsing to advertisers, uniquely ID'd and linked to my mobile phone? I'm glad I'm off contract because I am out of here.

  5. Re:Clear cookies by Some_Llama · · Score: 3, Informative

    they mean anonymous as in they only know what sites you visit, what you're interested in, who you are calling, who you receive calls from and how much time you do any of these...anonymous.

  6. Abuse? by GPS+Pilot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    --
    That that is is that that that that is not is not.
    1. Re:Abuse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      In the day and age of cheap large-scale data processing, any unique identifier that is connected to more than a few behavioral data points is inherently non-anonymous.

      Look at it this way - log2(7 billion) is approx 32. So, 32 bits of information (32 true/false questions, cleverly chosen) is all it takes to uniquely identify more or less any person on the planet. Reality is a bit messier, but also many bits will be far more useful than true/false (for instance even a "cleaned" IP that only has the leading two octets will generally narrow to a fairly precise geo region). Even the way you move your mouse can fairly accurately predict your age and gender.

      And yes, we'll see ads anyway, but that's a pretty awful status quo for us to just accept. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773

    2. Re:Abuse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Your IF condition is false. Being labelled with a "unique identifier" is the opposite of anonymous. Whether the unique identifier happens to be a person's name or a serial number acting as a substitute for a name makes no difference.

    3. Re:Abuse? by JohnFen · · Score: 2

      You can't have both "anonymous" and "unique identifier". It's a logical contradiction.

      Better to have ads that are relevant to my interests than random, irrelevant ads.

      To you, perhaps. Personally, I'd much rather have the random irrelevant ads.

  7. voting with my wallet by halfEvilTech · · Score: 3, Informative

    My contract just ended finally. So I am voting with my wallet and going no contract with another carrier and shaving half my bill in the process. There are decent phones out there for the cost of a "subsidized' contract phone that still perform well for mine and my wife's usage scenario.

    so fuck you verizon

  8. Anonymous really? by PixelThis · · Score: 2

    So they create an "anonymous, unique identifier" when you register on their website. Anonymous for who? They obviously have a link between you, the registration on the website, and this unique identifier. Where does the anonymous bit come in?

    1. Re:Anonymous really? by JohnFen · · Score: 3

      Whenever you see the words "anonymous" and "unique" attached to "identifier", you can be 100% sure that you're being lied to.