Congress Moves to Strike Internet Privacy Rules From Obama Era

I am obsessive-compulsive about internet privacy and the new bill before Congress will allow internet providers to not only harvest my private internet data but also share/sell it. Yeah Republicans!

So I pose the question, will Verizon have an opt out option for sharing my internet data? In fact, I feel that the default should be not to share my data with an opt-in for **bleep** to allow data sharing.

This is another attempt by the government to allow intrusion into our privacy. So much for the claim that Republicans want smaller government and staying out of peoples lives. What a bunch of hypocrites!!!!

Accepted answers

fullbodyscammer

"stealth mode"/"do not track"/"incognito mode" do nothing to prevent your information from being viewed by people and computers outside of your local machine. If you open a Chrome tab as Incognito, the splash page even tells you that. It is limited to your local account.

Secondly, the closest I could find to opting out is the following:

-Sign in on verizon.net

-Go to My Verizon->Services->Internet

-Go to My Internet and click "Manage"

-Go to "Change Internet Plan" and click "Manage Online Advertising Preferences"

-Mark the box for "Do Not Participate" and click 'Save'

It claims it'll be a week before it goes into effect. Why it takes a week to remove someone from a list, i'll never know.

All comments

rsfoster

I would be very interested to know Verizon's official corporate position on the bill that is now going through the House of Representatives to strip internet users of privacy. The bill will allow ISPs like Verizon to sell the history of customers' browsing habits to third parties. We have had an expectation of online privacy for decades through section 222 of the Telecommunications Act. This bill completely reverses course by allowing ISPs to monetize customer information and sell customer data for profit. I would like to learn from Verizon what protections you are putting in place for those among your customers who do not wish to have their personal data sold to any parties to whom Verizon wishes to sell it. I find it difficult to believe that Verizon would simply allow this naked financial exploitation of their customers.

rsfoster

I am disgusted that Verizon appears to be rubbing their hands at the prospect of making money from selling private customer data. How despicable, and what utter disregard for the well-being of their customers.

We are going to have to work at the local level to get this fixed, state by state.

HarryVederci

You express my sentiments exactly. I plan on getting in touch with my local state representative both house and senate.

I have done a small bit of research on this topic and I have found that certain states have passed internet privacy laws. It would be interesting to note which level of government would have precedence in this sort of situation. Hell, it could even make it's way all the way up to the Supreme Court of the USA

I will admit that I am anal/compulsive in regards to my privacy and many will readily admit that there is just cause for this. There is a contract between subscriber and provider, real and implied. "I give you money, you give me internet". To unilaterally alter that contract goes against standard business practices not to mention that it invades my privacy. No one needs to know what sites I visit.

verizoncust22

I do not want my browsing history sold via the potential overturning of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2016 broadband privacy rule. To whom should I address this query so that my wish is on record .

eagleville7

HEY VERIZON - IF YOU SHARE/SELL MY BROWSING HISTORY...

- I'LL CANCEL MY CONTRACT!

HEY VERIZON - IF YOU SHARE/SELL MY BROWSING HISTORY...

- I'LL CANCEL MY CONTRACT!

HEY VERIZON - IF YOU SHARE/SELL MY BROWSING HISTORY...

- I'LL CANCEL MY CONTRACT!

HEY VERIZON - IF YOU SHARE/SELL MY BROWSING HISTORY...

- I'LL CANCEL MY CONTRACT!

CRobGauth

Seeing as how Congress passed the law, they would be best to complain to.

My guess is that most if not all service providers will take advantage of this revenue stream.

And websites (Google, Yahoo, FB) have been doing this for quite a while.

Law was passed saying that its only fair that ISPs have the same rights as websites.

smith6612

Just some FYI links. Even with the regulations in place, Verizon on the wireless side of things is doing things far more nasty than the FiOS / DSL side of things is doing. To paint a picture: On Verizon Wireless, all of your HTTP traffic is piped through Proxy servers, which are set to inject a personally identifiable HTTP string to each of your reqeusts, which is used by advertisers to identify who you are (even if not uniquely identifiable, advertising firms play Connect the Dots in scary ways!). Additionally, these proxy servers in theory have the ability to log traffic, and they also cache, and do at times manipulate the content seen.

On the DSL/FiOS end of things, Verizon really only does that stupid DNS Assist thing, which directs you to a search partner of Verizon. It can be disabled by following the guide in my second link. Just like the CPNI program on Verizon Wireless, the advertising/search partner will eventually play Connect the Dots to figure out who you are as a web user.

I also remember seeing a preference in the online account settings of MyVerizon, which allow you to opt out of advertising programs as well on the DSL/FiOS side of things. However I can't find a reference to that right now.

https://www.verizonwireless.com/legal/notices/customer-cpni/

https://www.verizon.com/support/consumer/internet/opt-out-of-dns-assist

https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/relevant-mobile-ad/

The above are merely ISP assisted items right now. Verizon is not blatantly selling info about who you are, but they are not exactly innocent either, aiding the cesspool known as online advertising.

A dumb pipe is the best pipe 🙂

SiuM

Is Verizon selling customer data? Pay the customer a cut of it.

velinath

As some of you may know, the U.S. House of Representatives last night voted to roll back broadband privacy protections, allowing ISP's to sell our data and serve us ads directly, among other things. The bill is on its way to the President's desk now.

I'm wondering what Verizon's official policy will be with regards to harvesting and monetizing customer data if this bill passes - preferably with an answer directly from a representative. As a fallback, if anyone can point me in the right direction (phone number? email address?) to get an answer, that'd be appreciated too.

Piperswoods

How do you Opt Out of Verizon/FIOS sharing my browser information to marketers now that Trump has shot down the privacy of us?

coryhokie

I also want to know how to do this.

HarryVederci

I previously posted about my anal/compulsiveness about privacy, so I course I have no Facebook account, Twitter, or any other social media account. I laugh at all those people who do with a shake of the head and chagrined chuckle. I have a internet nom-de-plum that I always use online. I also use one time disposable email accounts for posting online and use Guerilla email service for sending emails. I use Firefox as my browser because of all the add ons it supports. My add ons include: Ghostery (blocks trackers), plus Cookie Manager+ and Self Destructing Cookies. Only close friends, relatives, and important businesses that I deal with (bank, mortgage co.) have my Verizon email address. I use other email providers for all other email communication because we all know that Verizon has no ability to block spam from hitting your inbox. My son gave my Verizon email address to his University and I got hit with spam after that. It took 6 months of using Mailwasher to get me off the the spam lists. For those who don't know about Mailwasher, it has the ability to bounce email back to sender. Spammers hate it when they get failed delivery notices. The spam lists are so pervasive that it takes months to convince the spammers that your email address is not valid (but it really is!). Imagine the amount of spam we will now be receiving because of the carte blanche the ISPs will be given. I also pay Verizon each month to have an unlisted phone number. I use FIOS dual ring feature for my home phone (it's set up to ring my cell phone) so I never give out my cell phone number except to family, friends and important businesses listed above. The Verizon number blocker works quite well and I use it for the spam phone calls.

To summerize my diatribe concerning internet privacy, Cookie Manager+ gives me the ability to delete cookies while I'm on that site which helps with Google and other harvesters, plus all the other add ons that I use on the browser helps me to remain as anonymous as feasible. I've thought about and rejected using a VPN because I have an 80/80 Mbs connection, I don't want to lose that speed.

Hopefully, I have given some pointers to those who have posted to this thread and future readers of this thread. The thing that aggravates me the most is that I was told by a FIOS CSR to use this forum when I quizzed him about the future of our privacy with the relaxation of the ISP rules. He informed me that Verizon reads these forums. I cal **bleep** on that because has anyone ever seen a reply from Verizon on the forums?

BTW, my user name is my internet nom de plume. If you can, figure out its joke

jonjones1

@Piperswoods wrote:
How do you Opt Out of Verizon/FIOS sharing my browser information to marketers now that Trump has shot down the privacy of us?

I don't believe this is possible. Under the Privacy link at the Verizon Web Site there were clickable opt out buttons etc.

I believe Verizon has stated they were still going to honor their customers choices.

Most browsers have the ability for stealth web browsing. And do not track features.

However ISP's have been sending generic ad's and click through links in web pages for many years. Always remember what ISP's come out with to take away your privacy, there are companies out there who will defeat those efforts.

fullbodyscammer

Secondly, the closest I could find to opting out is the following:

-Sign in on verizon.net

-Go to My Verizon->Services->Internet

-Go to My Internet and click "Manage"

-Go to "Change Internet Plan" and click "Manage Online Advertising Preferences"

-Mark the box for "Do Not Participate" and click 'Save'

It claims it'll be a week before it goes into effect. Why it takes a week to remove someone from a list, i'll never know.

CRobGauth

You may want to also sign up for nomorobo (its free).
They use simultaneous ring to match numbers against a database to see if caller looks like spam. If so, you hear one ring and then it answers.

CRobGauth

This is a peer to peer support forum.

You may want to look at Verizon twitter feed (I want to say I saw them post something there).

Or check their official news releases.

HarryVederci

As stated in my above post, I do not use social media. So there is no Twitter for me. Also as stated in above post, I am just relaying what the FIOS CSR told me about Verizon following the threads and commenting on them.

If this is just a user forum with no input from Verizon, then we're all wasting our time.

HarryVederci

@ fullbodyscammer

I'm sorry, this is not the solution and by designating it as such, false information is being spread. The opt in for privacy does not stop the ISP from mining your data and selling it to others. This is another revenue generator and most probably their largest revenue as compared to their in house sales.

The privacy option may block Verizon from targeting ads but if you note, it says nothing about selling your data to 3rd parties. Most advertising is done by 3rd parties. It's the ad agency that buy either space or time, not the company that the commercial is promoting. Allstate does not buy time or space, its ad agency does. Having worked in broadcasting for all my life, I know about spot buyers. These are national agencies that sell either time (radio/TV) or space (newpapers/magazines) in local markets. This method targets local areas for specific goods or services. ie: it isn't as cost effective to buy ad time nationally for, let's say, snow blowers. Those are cold weather products that don't sell many, if any, in warm weather places such as Arizona or New Mexico.

elvisbus

How does one opt out of allowing Verizon to share my internet history?

CRobGauth

You don't have to have an account on twitter to see what is posted.

same with fb. You can see any public posts.

JadeUkranian

My Senator voted in favor of S J Res 34 - Providing for congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and other Telecommunications Services.

How do I obtain the private data of my Senator collected by Verizon?

jonjones1

@JadeUkranian wrote:
My Senator voted in favor of S J Res 34 - Providing for congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and other Telecommunications Services.
How do I obtain the private data of my Senator collected by Verizon?

You don't.

pure and simple this is a help forum not a privacy complaint board.

in your customer agreement there is a physical address for those types of issues.

bart11

Does anyone know if Verizon is offering an 'opt out' from our web (and other) use collection?

HarryVederci

As of right now, the simple answer is: You can't.

Verizon has yet to address this issue

@Piperswoods wrote:
How do you Opt Out of Verizon/FIOS sharing my browser information to marketers now that Trump has shot down the privacy of us?

tns2

Actually up until now Verizon did allow you to opt out. But I suspect that will change.

HarryVederci

Please read all my posts. As I have stated before, the opt out is for Verizon not to target you for advertisements. It does not say anything about selling their subscriber lists (that includes name, address email address.etc).

I get catalogues in my mail from companies that I have never done business. Is it Verizon selling that information? I can't say. But strangely, I've gotten catalogues from cigar sellers and the only place I have ever looked at them have been online. Coincidence? Maybe, but Verizon is on my short list of companies that could sell that information. Google and other online entities do not have my home address, but Verizon does and may know my browsing history. I'll let the readers of this thread to connect the dots.

vsethi1

News on the internet is that ISP lobby (including Verizon) pushed through bill that allows them to track customers' internet activity. Any ideas on how to opt-out of it?

Cylinderx

I saw you deleted someone else's post, I am inquiring into the status of Verizon's privacy policy for selling user internet data,. Customers deserve to know wether or not our privacy is safe with a company. If you intend to sell my data I would request part of the funds, and or an opt out option,. Thanks

CRobGauth

I found this post from Verizon

http://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-committed-your-privacy

dartsaway

How can I make certain Verizon does not sell my browser history?

JadeUkranian

It's not a privacy complaint, it's a legit question for help. If it was a complaint, I wouldn't have asked for help.

You didn't help. You pointed me to book to read, not givng me an actual email address, phone number, physical address, menu option, organization, point of contact, website.

CRobGauth

If you bothered to read the statement I posted from Verizon, they have stated they are not going to sell your private history. Several other major isps have said the same.

And as others have said, Verizon doesn't publish the type of contact information you are asking for.

CRobGauth

If you read the other thread, you will find post where Verizon has stated their policy.