I understand Verizon's need to identify its potential customers. However, Verizon isn't willing to equally consider a customer's need for online security.
Identity theft prevention works two ways. There is no balance between Verizon's need to identify a customer and the customer's need to keep their identity safe.
I've had relatives get their identity stolen and it is a nightmare to unravel and in many cases the damage can never be undone.
After giving my name, phone, ssn, address, and passing a credit check, I was ready to setup online bill pay. Just to emphasize, as a new customer I wanted to give Verizon my money. So, there I was credit card in hand looking for how to setup bill pay.
No Joy. I couldn't access that page.
A bit later, I received an email from Fraud Prevention asking for a copy of my drivers license and a utility bill. After navigating the world's most annoying phone tree voice, I finally got a human on the phone.
With no regard for my protection and only thinking of Verizon's demand for an extraordinary amount of security, Verizon refused to either accept a submitted copy of my drivers license with the number blacked out or to allow me to go into a Verizon store and show my ID without a copy being taken.
Verizon would rather tell a new customer to go away than to acknowledge that all of the above had, in fact, already identified me well beyond most company's requirements.
As a Verizon stock holder, this does not make me happy. As a potential customer, I can live with my current ISP. As someone who is deeply aware data breaches happen all the time, I'm adamant that I'll cooperate as long as my own security is also protected.
Verizon customer service said that I did not have to worry because the Verizon uses "proprietary" software to secure my ID. Which, of course, makes it even more likely a data breach can happen. Open source encryption code is far more trustworthy than software that is proprietary - that means that the software used to encrypt the data can be inspected to make sure the final encryption is safe. Perhaps the word proprietary just sounded better to the team that wrote the phone script the agents were using?
Bottom line is that I do not yet have Verizon 5G Home Internet because I've more than identified myself while at the same time insisting that my own security be respected.
