Verizon Is Collecting User Data: Here’s How You Can Opt-Out

Verizon is dorsum in the news over again, and not for good reasons. The carrier is automatically enrolling its wireless users into the "Verizon Custom Experience" program, which basically collects user data for targeted ads.

Verizon'due south site claims it will use the data to "personalize our communications with you," among a few other things. More than specifically, this Customer Experience program gathers data on spider web history, app usage, location, and the people you lot've contacted recently. If all of this seems a footling excessive, it'south considering it is.

Some research by the folks over at Gizmodo and Input Mag suggests that Verizon keeps information on user website visits for upward to vi months. Moreover, the carrier keeps customer proprietary network information (CPNI) and location data for 12 months. Telephone call records which include the duration of the calls, are besides stored past Verizon, though text messages are exempt.

Verizon customers can opt-out via the My Verizon App

Users can opt-out of this rather shady data collection practice through the My Verizon app. Users merely have to caput over to the Settings tab, navigate to Privacy Settings and disable the Custom Experience and Custom Experience Plus options from the onscreen toggles.

As Droid-Life suggests, it'southward wise to disable all other information collection options from the My Verizon app, specially if you don't want the carrier to have access to sensitive data. Accounts with multiple numbers can disable the setting for each private number.

Data privacy is a big business for modern-24-hour interval smartphone users. This new revelation nearly Verizon makes the carrier come up across equally disingenuous. Fortunately, opting out of these services is relatively piece of cake and doesn't contain a lot of steps. If you're a Verizon customer, we highly recommend getting on the My Verizon app right away and reviewing what information you're currently sharing with the carrier.

Last year, Google came nether fire for its voice information drove practices. The visitor eventually decided to opt out all Google users from this practise. This meant that voice data collection became an optional service for Google customers rather than a default selection. Of grade, the company is no stranger to controversies involving user privacy, so the response was unsurprising.