Verizon Wireless made some changes this week to it’s privacy policy that may be of interest to its customers. Unless you opt-out, it will begin using information about what websites you visit, what apps and features you use, and where you’ve been when using devices on their network.
In a notice available on the Verizon website, the company outlined two new uses of customers’ information. The first use will be in marketing and other business reports. The second use will be to provide information that is more relevant to individual customers. Verizon stated that these new uses “will not share any information that identifies you personally.”
These new uses will include the following types of information:
Mobile Usage Information:
- Addresses of websites you visit when using our wireless service. These data strings (or URLs) may include search terms you have used
- Location of your device (“Location Information”)
- App and device feature usage
Consumer Information:
- Information about your use of Verizon products and services (such as data and calling features, device type, and amount of use)
- Demographic and interest categories provided to us by other companies, such as gender, age range, sports fan, frequent diner, or pet owner (“Demographics”)
This information will be used by Verizon to generate reports that indicate how many people of a particular demographic took part in a given activity (e.g., in a particular state, 50,000 mobile phones visited XYZ website). The information will also be shared with other companies to allow them to generate their own reports.
The other new use of this information is to target ads to your location, demographics, and preferences. Advertisers will be able to focus their efforts on customers in their markets. And customers will have fewer ads not relevant to them. Again, information that identifies you personally with not be shared.
This is similar to what Google and Apple both do with user location data on Android and iOS devices, though both firms have made doing so an opt-in process, rather than opt-out. Both companies have also been hauled in front of Congress, too, as legislators began investigating whether or not user privacy was being violated.
This policy is an opt-out policy. Unless customers request it, they will participate in providing information for these purposes. However, it’s a fairly simple process to opt-out if this is something you would rather not do. You can go to the company’s website www.vzw.com/myprivacy and make your wishes known there, or you can call 866-211-0874. Shared plans will be able to adjust this preference on a line-by-line basis.
No date was listed indicating when these changes would go into effect, which means they probably already have.