Suzanne Choney writes:
Wireless carriers get their monthly take from you, but they’re cashing in on you in other ways, too — unless you tell them otherwise: Carriers sell information about your mobile Web searches and other data to marketing companies.
The good news is, you can easily opt out of providing such info. The bad news is, it’s mostly up to you to do so — no action on your part generally means they’re sharing your info. To fix this, you go online to your account, and change your privacy settings. If you haven’t looked at them in awhile — or ever — today’s a good day to start.
Bryan Clark on App.net was upset when he posted a day ago that “new Verizon customers like us have 30 days to opt-out from them selling your Web history and device location to marketers.”
Verizon Wireless told NBC News Wednesday that’s not completely accurate.
“Our customers can change their privacy preferences at any time,” said a company spokeswoman. “The 30-day window is essentially the initial time frame so customers can read and look at their options, but again, they can change them any time through MyVerizon.”
The carrier also wants customers to know that “there are several different programs” it uses for information sharing, if allowed by the subscriber, including a recent program called Precision Market Insights, announced by Verizon Oct. 1.
Read more on NBC.
h/t, Linda Kaplan