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Verizon's New Rewards Program Lets It Track Your Browsing History (theverge.com)
The new "Verizon Up" rewards program released this week by Big Red awards users a credit for every $300 they spend on their Verizon bill that can be redeemed toward various rewards. The only catch is that Verizon requires you to enroll in Verizon Selects, a program that allows the company to track a huge chunk of your personal data. The Verge reports: That includes web browsing, app usage, device location, service usage, demographic info, postal or email address, and your interests. Furthermore, that data gets shared with Verizon's newly formed Oath combination (aka AOL and Yahoo), plus with "vendors and partners" who work with Verizon. Which is kind of a long list of people who have access to what feels like a fairly significant amount of your data. It's worth noting that Verizon has been operating under these terms and conditions for a while with an earlier rewards program called "Smart Rewards," which also required users to opt in to the Verizon Selects tracking program. But that doesn't make it any better that this is the trade-off you're forced to make to take advantage of the rewards.
Personal data has real value, but without a physical form, the general public do not grasp a full sense of it's worth. It's the same issue as cash vs plastic payments. People entrenched in debt are often told by debt councellors to pay cash day-to-day, to help them perceive the money they spend as tangible.
If you stopped someone in the street carrying a thick book containing every location they'd ever been, their entire web browsing history, the dates and times of every piece of software they'd interacted with, and their personal interests... and then offered them $300, I'd wager that 99%, maybe 99.99% would say no (and probably get angry).
Because this data is not visible in a meaningful way to the end user, the outrage at such an offer is lessened.
Those who consent to the collection of their behavioural data are also betraying the others who don't. The data collected from them will reveal information about other people by correlation.
Unless you live in complete isolation, consenting to big data surveillance is factually and morally impossible.
Just tell your customers, let us track your data and we'll give you whatever. Why bother hiding it under some lame rewards scheme where that's basically all it is anyway.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
I've been in the Verizon reward plan for some time now. I've got like 400,000 points. I just sort of got signed up when automatically. What they allow you to do is get a discount on items off retail price so that they're closer to but still greater than the price you would pay on Amazon or at Walmart for the same item. Anybody who thinks the Verizon reward program is worth anything is probably already compromised.
Soon it will be opt out, and after a while just mandatory.
From an advertising perspective I don't understand why your browsing history is that useful. No one I know clicks on ads, I've never bought anything based on an advertisement, yet somehow Google and the like continue to rake in money. Until companies figure out that online advertising is useless, there will still be huge pressure for ISPs to cash in on that personal data funny money...greater fool theory and all that. The Second Dotcom Bubble is based on advertising just like the first, but this time people have a computer in their pockets 24/7 that stores a lot more personal information.
Microsoft does a very similar thing with their Bing Rewards program and if you don't watch your privacy settings on Windows 10, you're automatically signed up if you use a Microsoft account. You don't get much - maybe a few gift cards here and there. Most people don't care but I've certainly switched it off. After the FCC rule allowing ISPs to sell personal data was passed, a lot of ISPs came out with statements saying they wouldn't engage in this practice. I guess the ending to that was, "...unless you tell us you want to in exchange for gift cards."
a change too far then? sing along.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyclqo_AV2M
Be a telco.
Or any large corporation really; as soon as you make money hand-over-fist you can buy politicians and have your competition outlawed and tricks like that, so your customers cannot even vote with their wallet and run away. But it does show that at least in the US, telcos are their very special own brand of legal swindle.
It's so often the telcos that aren't content with merely serving the customer, or being a "dumb pipe" common carrier; they just have to stuff the bill, fsck up net neutrality, meddle in the datastream, strip out other ads and add their own, and so on, and so forth. What is it that makes telcos so short bus special?
A company that actually "buys" your data from you.... will wonders never cease.
Sell your soul for a fistful of virtual bucks redeemable on Verizon's store, only for selected prizes like shiny ,as seen on tv, plastic overpriced potato slicer that will fill your empty heart.
If I choose to sell my data, I'd insist on hard cash. These rewards are a scam, and have always been.
The ability to track and monitor you to generate valuable data for the company running it is pretty much part of the definition of any rewards scheme. You didn't think the reward referred to what you got, did you?
verizon == evilzon
I’m not clear if browsing https sites protects you from ISP spying?
They give you a discount now to reduce everyone's negotiating power later.
That reminds me that it's past time to dump my Yahoo disposable email account I've had since Moses got pissy and broke the tablet.
If you didn't already know this, now you do: All 'rewards' programs exist to allow them to collect personally-identifiable information about you and your spending habits, that otherwise they would not be legally entitled to. Or did you think they were just being 'nice' and giving you a break for shopping at their store? So-called 'rewards cards' and similar programs have long been on the list of things I have no part of, for that reason. if you want to protect and preserve what you can of your privacy, then do not participate in such 'programs'. The 'discounts' you get are minimal compared to what your data is worth.
I dunno, could you sign up for the Verizon spying program and then bypass all the spying by using a VPN? Might be worth it, if only as a middle finger to such marketing tactics.
I'm sure Verizon customer are chomping at the bit to sign up for this program. NOT!