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Verizon Privacy The Internet

Verizon Might Be Collecting Your Browsing History (theverge.com) 36

Verizon might be collecting information about your browsing history, location, apps, and your contacts, all in the name of helping the company "understand your interests," first spotted by Input. The Verge reports: The program, which Verizon appears to automatically opt customers into, is called Verizon Custom Experience and its controls lay buried in the privacy settings on the My Verizon app. The program introduces two different options that appear in the app, Custom Experience and Custom Experience Plus, each of which varies in terms of invasiveness. Verizon provides additional information about both settings within the app, as well as on a FAQ page on its website. It appears that the Custom Experience option is a stripped-down version of Custom Experience Plus, and as Verizon states directly in the app, it helps Verizon "personalize" its "communication with you" and "give you more relevant product and service recommendations" by using "information about websites you visit and apps you use on your mobile device."

Meanwhile, Custom Experience Plus has the same stated purpose -- to help Verizon provide you with a more "personalized" experience. However, it not only uses information about the websites and apps you use on your mobile device, but it also says it uses your "device location," along with "phone numbers you call or that call you" to help Verizon "better understand your interests." This also includes your CPNI, which tracks the times and duration of your calls, and because Verizon is your wireless network provider, it can track your location even if you've turned off location services on your phone. As Verizon explains on its site, it might use your information to, say, present you with an offer that includes music content, or give you a music-related option in its Verizon Up reward program if it knows you like music. Verizon explicitly states that for the more invasive Customer Experience Plus tracking, you "must opt-in to participate and you can change your choice at any time." Signing up for those Up Rewards, or other promotions with consequences buried in the fine print may have opted customers in unknowingly.
How to opt-out: "[...] open your My Verizon app, and then hit the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Scroll down and select 'Manage privacy settings' beneath the 'Preferences' heading. On the next page, toggle off 'Custom Experience' and 'Custom Experience Plus.' To erase the information that Verizon has already collected about you through the program, tap 'Custom Experience Settings,' and hit 'Reset.'"
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Verizon Might Be Collecting Your Browsing History

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  • Might? (Score:5, Informative)

    by aerogems ( 339274 ) on Monday December 06, 2021 @06:28PM (#62053917)

    That's basically exactly what they're doing. I had already disabled this, but got a message from Verizon I guess trying to convince me to sign up for it so I double checked to make sure it was still disabled. The email came with a link direct to the page with the controls on it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      It's a man-in-the-middle attack, except the man in the middle is the internet provider.

    • They might be collecting yours, but they're certainly not collecting mine! Why would I use such an over-priced service?

    • Re:Might? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fermion ( 181285 ) on Monday December 06, 2021 @07:49PM (#62054129) Homepage Journal
      All network providers collect personal information. It has been well documented. That is why paranoid people run VPN. That is why apple is doing the complicated network stuff natively in all the OS. The only difference is the level,of access they have. Comcast, obviously, can only monitor where you go on the net, and your email. Verizon, with phones that donâ(TM)t protect you, has access to everything. They are supposed to anonymize. Maybe they do. But even so, users are downloading apps all the time that reports personal details on their locations and kids. Hopefully Facebook is not storing ever message sent on WhatsApp. It is a dangerous universe out there. Be careful and donâ(TM)t forget your towel.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Why don't you lobby for some privacy laws that stop them doing it?

        A VPN is obviously the best option, but a free and easy trick is to change your DNS server to a public one. They use DNS logging a lot because these days many connections are encrypted tunnels to CDNs that don't reveal much about the destination site. It's obviously far from perfect but does significantly reduce the amount of data they are able to collect, assuming you use DoH so your queries are encrypted (most modern browsers support that).

        • by trparky ( 846769 )
          You're assuming that the VPN isn't doing anything nefarious as well. Oh, I know... you're going to tell me about how your VPN company of choice says that they have "no logs". Excuse me? You actually believe them? HA! I'll believe that when hell freezes over.
    • Yep me too, never let Verizon run any of their spyware code on your phone

  • Come on, they all do this. All browsers are cookie monsters. Is this news?
    Adding more surveillance is just evolution of companies.
    • Adding more surveillance is just evolution of companies.

      The one time you all wish for a creator.

  • if I was browsing on my phone,
    but I don't.

  • Verizon might be collecting information about your browsing history, location, apps, and your contacts, all in the name of helping the company "understand your interests," first spotted by Input.

    Think they'll get the message if I browse for T-Mobile?

    • by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Monday December 06, 2021 @07:08PM (#62054045)

      Verizon might be collecting information about your browsing history, location, apps, and your contacts, all in the name of helping the company "understand your interests," first spotted by Input.

      Think they'll get the message if I browse for T-Mobile?

      No. Unless you actually cancel your Verizon subscription, all you're doing is telling them you're in the market for more cellular services, which they will happily advertise to you.

  • by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Monday December 06, 2021 @06:43PM (#62053975)
    I don't have the My Verizon app on my phone, but the instructions are essentially the same to do it from your computer. I just opted out of Custom Experience (I apparently was already opted out of Custom Experience Plus).
    • by kulaga ( 159303 )

      And you can lock it from being turned on for all lines on your account. Glad I read this post!

  • by Albinoman ( 584294 ) on Monday December 06, 2021 @06:48PM (#62053993)
    You are a telecommunications company, not an advertising platform. Quit trying to understand people's interests because its none of your business. Want more business? How about actually competing to be the best phone service for price and speed? I quit using Verizon because the service was always worse than theyd say and they were always trying to get me to sign up to be advertised to.
    • Seriously. What I'd give for a company that didn't try to squeeze every last penny out of their customers.

    • Go sit outside the Verizon CEO's house with a telescope, and when challenged, explain: "I'm not peeping at your daughter's bedroom window, I am merely trying to 'understand her interests'. You think there's any chance of a 'personalized experience' with her in it for me?".
  • Century. If you conduct any Internet transactions then they are available to all on the Internet.
  • This sounds like this is tracking for people that have installed the App. I'm stating this because the title makes it sound like it is a network-wide thing that can only be opted out thru the app. This might lead people to unnecessarily install the app in the first place.
  • How to opt-out: Burn down their 5G towers.
  • Presumably the Verizon FIOS customers are handled similarly.
    I'd assume they are, but the opt out is not obvious.

    • Log into your Verizon account
      Select Manage my Internet
      Select Manage Online Advertising Preferences
      Check Do Not Participate
      Select Save

      I was apparently opted-in before looking for this, same as the wireless customers.

      Which sucks.

  • They have contracts to sell your data to the govt....so might?
  • This is why I don't mind paying full price for an unlocked, non-carrier specific phones. It also has the advantage of not having all that pre-installed malware taking up so much of the memory, and gets updates direct from the manufacture before the carriers.
    • by SysPig ( 63656 )

      It's still there. This is not tied to anything Verizon installs.

      Two Google provided Pixels here - checked account settings online, both had the settings enabled.

      • by bjwest ( 14070 )

        It's still there. This is not tied to anything Verizon installs.

        Two Google provided Pixels here - checked account settings online, both had the settings enabled.

        Nope. FTFA:

        The program, which Verizon appears to automatically opt customers into, is called Verizon Custom Experience and its controls lay buried in the privacy settings on the My Verizon app.

        There is no My Verizon app on my phone. That's installed by Verizon on the phones you purchase from them.

  • by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Monday December 06, 2021 @08:53PM (#62054265)

    You should also be mad about them cutting their effective cell coverage by half of the distance from each cell tower which would be about six times less cell coverage area by disabling their 3G network.
    Doesn't matter if you are an urban area but if you ever want to get out away from everything you can't even load a web page in many areas now. I can't even drive down the freeway and make calls in some areas.

  • I'd expect an ISP to collect browsing history from all their customers.
  • They can kiss me in the ass and measure from there what targeted products and services to offer.
  • I think Google said the other day they needed my phone number to satisfy a regulation, but that they would so use it for advertising to me in its easy, globally unique ID sort of way.

    So, sorry, no thank you. Sorry if the police arrest you for not collecting it. You know it anyway and use it anyway.

  • I left Verizon years and years ago when they were injecting tracking headers into HTTP traffic
  • They can't track a phone that's been crushed
  • I'm curious to know where the data interception is taking place. It's not clear from the article if it's coming from a common HTTPS library, device-level network watcher, or network-watching at the ISP level.

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