Mar 26 2009
Is Verizon a spammer?
Reports are floating around that Verizon has sent out a “notice” to all of its customers. The notice sets up a sort of backwards “opt-in” mechanism for sharing your private data.
It isn’ really an “opt-in” rather it’s a “negative opt-in”. A negative opt-in is when you have to tell someone not to add you to the list and if you don’t tell them not to, you are agreeing to let them (and in this case Verizon) share your personal data.
Even, if like most people, you didn’t read the fine print and didn’t even realize that you were opting in to begin with, and had no idea that opting out was a possibility. Customers who get their bills online instead of in the mail don’t even get the notice.
Information Verizon may share includes what services you have purchased, your billing, technical, and location information. Information can be shared with “affiliates, agents and parent companies.” That’s not very reassuring. “Affiliate” in particular is a very fuzzy term, and usually means any marketer who has signed up with a program and paid a fee.
So, most likely you are about to get spammed by Verizon’s affiliates if you haven’t already.
