Jeff Gelles: Verizon, Verizon Wireless policy changes raise privacy issues
The new data policies allow customers to opt out of what Verizon describes, in part, as “new ways to advertise to mobile users and wireline broadband customers” – a choice a Verizon official stressed when I called to ask about the company’s changes in terms.
But it’s the flip side of that – Verizon’s inclusion-by-default approach – that most disturbs advocates such as John Simpson, of California’s Consumer Watchdog.
“They’ve changed the rules in midstream to allow them to do whatever they want with the data,” Simpson says. “At the very least, if they do this, they should do it as an opt in.”
It’s hard to tell exactly what Verizon and Verizon Wireless plan to do, although news reports and critiques center on the expectation that Verizon and its mobile affiliate want a bigger piece of the growing, lucrative pie known as behavioral marketing – delivering ads to consumers based on profiles of their behavior.
According to the website digital Trends, “the data collected will include all Web sites visited through a Verizon phone including keywords used in a search engine, the location of the device and all downloads of apps as well as which apps are getting the most use.”
Verizon officials declined to answer questions, beyond e-mailing a statement dated Monday that said the companies’ new advertising program “does not use web surfing information or device location information.”
One point of confusion appears to be that Verizon and Verizon Wireless have announced two new programs, one delivering ads and another involving “creation of new types of aggregate business and marketing programs.”
Verizon’s statement added, “Any information shared in these programs will be non-personally identifiable, meaning that none of the information will connect back to a specific customer.”
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Article source: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/jeff_gelles/20111020_Jeff_Gelles__Verizon__Verizon_Wireless_policy_changes_raise_privacy_issues.html
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