Verizon Wants to Share Your Data, So Be Sure to Opt-Out
How many of you get one of those letters that tell you your “Terms of Service” have changed and casually either skim it or dump it altogether? Probably many, if not most of you. Well, Verizon has given us all an example of why we shouldn’t do that.
Dr. David Weinberger, from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, is probably less likely to do that than all of us, and he found, embedded in a pamphlet full of legalese he received from Verizon, that he has only 45 days to opt out of “agreeing” to let Verizon share his personal information.
Yep, so if you don’t opt out, you tacitly agree, a scurrilous way of getting people to “agree” to something they wouldn’t if the policy was opt-in, instead. Here’s what Weinberger has to say (emphasis mine):
A small legalistic pamphlet from Verizon arrived today telling me that I have 45 days to opt out of “agreeing” to let Verizon share Customer Proprietary Network Information, i.e., “information created by virtue of your relationship with Verizon Wireless,” including “services purchased (including specific calls you make and receive,” billing info, technical info and location info. They promise to only share this with “affiliates, agents and parent companies.” It will definitely not be shared with “unrelated third parties” … unless, perhaps that third party pays Verizon to become an affiliate, whatever the heck “affiliate ” means.
According to Weinberger they made opting out a pain, however. In fact, you will find a message in your inbox in your account that has a dead link. But he went through the trouble of finding the link for us, by calling Verizon Tech Support and finding out that it’s available by going to the My Profile tab in My Verizon, clicking on Phone Controls, and viola: thelink.
Makes you wonder if a Verizon iPhone would be such a great deal, though.