Get Ready For More Advertising On Your Cell Phone

Posted by Jason on Oct 11, 2007 in Mobile Market, Public Policy | Comments | Share

Two of us just received a notice from Verizon Wireless about CPNI. CPNI stands for Customer Proprietary Network Information: our call records, essentially. What numbers we called, how often, how long we spent on the phone, and how much it cost us. (It does not include our own names, numbers, or addresses.)

Verizon wants to share this data with third parties, and of course they need our permission: “you have a right, and we have a duty, under federal and state law, to protect the confidentiality of your CPNI.”

But that duty only goes so far: “Unless you provide us [Verizon Wireless] with notice that you wish to opt out within 30 days of receiving this letter, we will assume that you give the Verizon Companies the right to share your CPNI with the authorized companies as described above.”

Who are the authorized companies? “Our affiliates, agents and parent companies (including Vodafone) and their subsidiaries.”

That’s a pretty broad list. Agents could include anyone that Verizon hires, which becomes clear when you reach the bottom of page 8: “we may include our own or third-party advertising in the services you’ve purchased from us, and we may share information about you [information here includes CPNI] with affiliates, vendors and third parties to … deliver relevant advertising to you while using the services. We may collect and transmit information regarding your use of the services through applications or other software present on your device. If you do not want us to collect, transmit or use such information about you for the above purposes, you should not use the services; by using the services, you expressly authorize us to use your information for these purposes.”

I called 1-800-333-9956 and opted out of sharing CPNI. That last paragraph seems to imply that I have to stop using my phone as well. It’s not clear.

We have no objection to advertising at Skydeck, on the web or on phones. If ads on phones mean more services for a lower price, that could be good for everybody. Services like GMail deliver advertising based on the actual content of your email, not just metadata.

But there was a lot of debate about GMail. We wonder how many people got this notice in the mail last week and trashed it without realizing that by doing so they were giving Verizon Wireless permission to share their call records with marketing companies?

We can’t find the notice online, so here’s a scanned copy.

For more on CPNI, visit the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

UPDATE: The document has two parts. The first is headed Customer Proprietary Network Information Notice. It asks permission to share CPNI among ‘affiliates, agents and parent companies’ and states that you can opt out of information sharing at any time. Great, but as we said before, ‘agent’ is a very broad term.

The second part of the document - headed Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions - is a new contract between you and Verizon Wireless. It applies to new customers and to existing customers who go on using the service ‘after making any change or addition when we’ve told you that the change or addition requires acceptance’, i.e. you don’t have to accept the agreement until … you have to accept the agreement. It’s the new agreement that mentions advertising explicitly (as opposed to ‘agents’, which could include ad networks) and it implies that there is no way to opt out of sharing information: if you don’t want Verizon Wireless to share information about you, ‘YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE SERVICES.’ So the two parts of the document seem to contradict each other.

VZW’s right to share information is one of several sections that survive the termination of the agreement. We like that those sections are marked with the symbol for infinity.

Disclaimer: we are not lawyers. Do read it yourself.

UPDATE 2: Kudos to the Consumerist for highlighting this issue over a month ago.

Here’s the relevant section from the new Terms and Conditions (which are printed alongside the actual CPNI notice on the same piece of paper):

Your Privacy - IMPORTANT INFORMATION - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE MAKING YOUR PURCHASE DECISION
∞ In the course of providing services to you, we may collect certain information that is made available to us solely by virtue of our relationship with you, such as information about the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, and amount of use of the telecommunications services you purchase. This information and related billing information is known as Customer Proprietary Network Information, or CPNI. (CPNI does not include your name, address, and wireless telephone number.) Further, except as provided in this agreement, we won’t intentionally share personal information about you without your permission. WE MAY USE AND SHARE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND HOW YOU USE THE SERVICES: (A) SO WE CAN PROVIDE OUR GOODS AND SERVICES; (B) SO OTHERS CAN PROVIDE GOODS OR SERVICES TO US, OR TO YOU ON OUR BEHALF; (C) SO WE OR OUR AFFILIATES CAN COMMUNICATE WITH YOU ABOUT GOODS OR SERVICES THAT ANY OF US OFFER (ALTHOUGH YOU CAN CALL US ANY TIME IF YOU DON’T WANT US TO DO THIS); (D) TO PROTECT OURSELVES; OR (E) AS REQUIRED BY LAW, LEGAL PROCESS, OR EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES. IN ADDITION, WE MAY INCLUDE OUR OWN OR THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING IN THE SERVICES YOU’VE PURCHASED FROM US, AND WE MAY SHARE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU WITH AFFILIATES, VENDORS AND THIRD PARTIES TO, IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE REASONS, DELIVER RELEVANT ADVERTISING TO YOU WHILE USING THE SERVICES. WE MAY COLLECT AND TRANSMIT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES THROUGH APPLICATIONS OR OTHER SOFTWARE PRESENT ON YOUR DEVICE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT US TO COLLECT, TRANSMIT OR USE SUCH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU FOR THE ABOVE PURPOSES, YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE SERVICES; BY USING THE SERVICES, YOU EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZE US TO USE YOUR INFORMATION FOR THESE PURPOSES.

We read this as saying that Verizon Wireless has the right to share CPNI with advertisers.

It also seems that the two parts of the document - the CPNI notice and the Ts&Cs - do not contradict each other after all. According to clause (C) above, you can only opt out of sharing your CPNI with Verizon affiliates. You cannot block Verizon Wireless from sharing information in any of the other scenarios described; you can only choose not to use the services.

Again, that’s our reading. Tell us what we are missing.

UPDATE 3: The New York Times covers the story today. Note the last line: “We do not use C.P.N.I. currently for mobile advertising.” Yes, but the new agreement appears to give Verizon Wireless the right to do so in the future.

Senaka Balasuriya

I don't believe there is a benefit to the customer, unless the customer wants to have ads presented via the mobile phone. Unlike this, Gmail actually provides a benefit to the customer in the form of free email.

I say just call 1-800-333-9956 and opt out of sharing CPNI. No need to wait for the notice.

Thomas Stoecklein

I for one cannot see how that is legally binding; if I recall correctly from my Business Law courses, mere inaction (even when there is a notice about it such as here) does not constitute agreement to a set of terms.

redherkey

Lovely... for the past three months, I've had non-stop messages at all hours of the day from a local individual which Verizon has been completely unable to stop. They claim they have no ability to block harassing text messages and can only assign me a new number (something I find extraordinarily unlikely given my experience with message control and compliance responsibilities).

Now Verizon is going to unleash paid-spam which they profit from, and allege they can actually control this once they let it loose? It's remarkable how much they fail to understand their customer.

Michael Z.

I absolutely will not tolerate advertising on my phone. Any attempt to send me junk or prefix calls with ads will result in my termination of the service and they can see me in court for their "early termination fees".

I'm at the breaking point with corporate America and their unrelenting quest for more and more money without any regard for the customer.

Cindy Dunlap

I do NOT want my cell phone number released for advertising purposes. It is an invasion of my privacy and I will not be bombarded with needless advertising. I will make sure I boycott any products advertisied on my cell phone!

Hank Becker

If your account has a password associated with it (mine does) the IVR asks you to enter your password. Of course if you have an account password that is non numeric (such as a name) there is no way to enter the password - and you can not opt out.

In Verizon wisdom (sarcastic) there is no number you can dial for human assistance. Another well-designed Verizon system.

Jeffrey Nelson

Jason - we met when you testified in House Telecom Subcommittee last summer. As the spokesguy at Verizon Wireless, I guess I'll clear this up. Verizon Wireless isn't - and won't be selling - customer information to advertisers or marketers. This is to share info among Verizon companies only, as per FCC rules.

JimB

Define a "Verizon" Company... Let me guess that marketing firm that you've entered into a relationship with is now a Verizon company ... ect ad nauseum

If Verizon was so altruistic about this then they would have made it an automatic opt-out policy instead. They would have also made this easily accessible from the either the regular verizon website or the verizonwireless site but I couldn't find anything there about it.

David Berry

What you all think is about advertising and marketing couldn't be further from the truth. This program, and others like it, are stop-loss mechanisms to prevent legal liability by Verizon for handing this information over to the FBI, NSA, etc. *without* a warrant. Believe me, if you were a business looking at possible class-action damages on a scale that most of these Ma-Bell types are looking at--especially when courts are finding their information disclosures as unconstitutional--you'd find a way to trick people into implicit permission.

Jason Devitt

Jeffrey,

I am delighted to hear that. Nevertheless, the agreement gives you the right to share CPNI with 'affiliates, vendors and third parties ... to deliver relevant advertising', so you can change your mind at any time.

As I said in the post, we don't have a problem with the change in principle. But it's a big change to make via opt-out. The document is ambiguous. (What does it mean to say that 'if you do not want us to collect, transmit, or use such information, you should not use the services'? Isn't it enough to opt out?) And the part about advertising is buried on page 8.

Best wishes,
Jason

Kristen

My information is invalid? My husband and I just called separately and got the same message. We gave them our number, our zip, and the last 4 of our SSN. very unhappy.

Shell

Hmmm.... Companies should never be authorized to share any of your personal information with anyone because you "do not" respond to a notice to that effect. They should only be authorized to do so if you specifically "give" them permission to do so. Failing to respond should not equal "permission given." Very sneaky method and should be illegal.

Preston

For internal divisions of verizon wireless to use your calling patterns and history to contact you about additional products, I do believe they have to have your permission, usually part of your agreement or terms and conditions, but to include the advertising... I'm not a fan off. I tried to opt out, and i have to take additional steps because I'm a business... That's fine, I'll be opting out of them completely to Alltel anyway.

penn

kristen, old billing zip?
that was my problem; i used my old one (wtf?) and it worked. at least the records they are selling are stale :)

Nick

For Mr. Berry,
PATROIT Act Title II does not require this type of indemnification for the carriers. All PATROIT Act Title II requests are required to be followed up with the proper warrant/subpoena process. Yes, I agree there are avenues to exploit this system, but hopefully, future changes to PATROIT Act will strengthen the requirement for due process. That said, due process is being served, just not in a timely fashion.

Additionally, the language for information sharing has been in these contracts for decades and is usually worded as "as required by law". This language is not worded that way, but is worded as "third parties" or as "Verizon companies". This looks like a standard boilerplate to allow a Corporation's divisions and operating companies to share customer information between themselves. Something they DO have to indemnify themselves from, lest they become prey to a frivolous lawsuit. Let's consider the the contract between you and your credit card company. This type of information sharing language exists in these types of contracts as these companies must break themselves into compartments for regulatory and tax purposes. An example would be when you call the credit company's call center. The call center is probably a different division or even a different company, but they still have access to your records in order to provide the service. Since Verizon is a utility, they are governed by the BPU's in each state they operate, as well as federal regulatory bodies. I'm sure there is not one monolithic corporation, but many different legal entities to protect the interests of the umbrella corporation.

For Mr. Stoecklein, I too am recalling my Business Law classes and I may be a bit fuzzy, but with the exception of the "third party" clause, I'm sure that the Opt-Out provision is legal. When the contract was entered into with the carrier, there was almost certainly language that defined the carrier as the named entity and all entities (divisions, subsidiaries, etc..) wholly owned, partially owned or joined through working agreements with the corporation. Depending on how that language was crafted, third party companies could fit under the Opt-Out umbrella.

What Mr. Nelson is referring to can be read here...

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/phoneabout...

I agree that the "Third Parties" clause is a little discomforting, but I do not see the language change out of the ordinary to allow the corporation to protect itself. That said, I find out that Verizon is spamming my phone, I'm switching!

dickie

"Hank Becker on October 15th, 2007 8:27 am:
If your account has a password associated with it (mine does) the IVR asks you to enter your password. Of course if you have an account password that is non numeric (such as a name) there is no way to enter the password - and you can not opt out."

Actually, you just enter the letters as if you were texting. My password is alpha numeric and worked just fine during the call process. I do wonder if this is enough of a change to warrant cancellation without an ETF charge...

Mike DeQuardo

Jeffery Nelson,
I find your response incredible. You needed all this fine print to 'only share data among VZW companies'? THEN make it an opt-out model. I've been a customer (multi-lines) for over 10 years. I'm so angry about this I'd switch in a heartbeat if not for incurring the $350 in ETF.

Verizon has really screwed the pooch on this one. You and your company should be ashamed.

Nick

To Mr. DeQuardo,
I'm not going to be a Verizon apologist, but "all this fine print" unfortunately is necessary in the legal world. I agree that contract law is becoming (or some would argue, has become) the joke that patent law now is. But, until proper tort reform has taken place and we can rely upon the simple meaning of things, we will be stuck with this legalese. The reason the company chose the Opt-Out process is because they have probably added all of this garbage to indemnify themselves, but they believe that their current contract appropriately described this "information sharing" process to the customer. Opt-Out is obviously, less expensive and provides significantly higher "buy-in" than does an Opt-In system.

This is probably a law department that had way too much time and money and is trying to be proactive. That said, if Verizon DOES begin to use this "information sharing" clause to spam my cell phone, I will be one of the first to cancel all my dealings with them. That means my home fios service (Comcast left the cable from the pole to my house, so it shouldn't take long to reconnect), my wireless and my office T1.

Jeffrey Nelson

Today's NYTimes has story that seems mostly right to me - but doesn't note that Verizon Wireless is the last of the major wireless companies to go to customers with opt-out on CPNI to be shared across its family of companies. Sprint had done so but stopped once they spun off their landline operations - since there was no longer a "family of companies" to share information with. AT&T has been doing so for months - and an AP story noted they got smacked down for NOT informing a few thousand customers of their opt-out abilities.

I'm not defending opt-out vs. opt-in; but the FCC rules were and are the rules - and we're playing by the rules. No shame in that.

Ardath Dunlap

I certainly want to opt out. I do not want my cell phone number released for advertising purposes. This is definitely an invasion of my privacy. We get bombarded from all sides now with advertising that we sure don't need.

norm ewald

Can anyone suggest an working, non-automated Verizon phone number where I can voice my objections to a real human being?

(I have already opted-out mechanically on my 4 existing phone lines.)

I intend to vote with my wallet and take my dollars elsewhere when our contract expires if Verizon continues on this path.

Are there any lawyers out there who can, in layman's terms, explain how Verizon can change the terms of a signed contract and then hold the customer to it with coersive penalties if one terminates the service?

I'm about ready to bolt.

-Fed Up

Jamie

While reading this I got a call from an advertiser offering me a trip to las vegas... great!

Patrice Woodson

I certainly want to opt out. I do not want my cell phone number released for advertising purposes. This is definitely an invasion of my privacy.

suman s Joshi

I want to opt out. I do not want my cell phone numbers released for any acommercial purposes, marketing or advertising.I consider this as my invasion of privacy.

Kahuna

This box asked me to speak my mind... Here goes! How can a consumer society as a whole exist without Advertising? IT CANT! Europe, almost all carriers provide binary content (Video) to cell phones, Pacific Rim (China, Japan, Korea) it's an afterthought. Our US cellular carriers are dragging their feet in the sand like a 5 year old who does not want to leave the beach. Kicking & screaming because 75% + of the market is owned by the big three.

This “mobile devise” as it's now referenced is a far cry from a cell phone of ago.. Think about it, we started with color screens, then cameras, now recorders, constant connectivity to the backbone of the net, domains with .mobi..Aggghh.... Do you really think it's going to stop a progression path forward so in 18 months of today, I can run, control, switch, research, download, play, type, laugh my ass off, or simply talk…..?

Advertising to your mobile devise is going to happen no matter what, it's as basic as gravity. The consumer culture needs fuel, that fuel is eyeball to impulse or calculated action. You achieve it in your brain by advertising.... Sucks doesn’t it.

Knowing that ads will be delivered to my cell phone, I am not going to put my efforts in stopping the battle; but gathering expediential support, to limit the level of intrusive spawned behavior like “pops” to your cell phone!!!!

The mobile revolution has finally hit the US..

Robb

I don't have Verizon, but all my friends do. So where can I go to opt out... If they release my friends records it includes my number and information, right? So shouldn't I have some kind of right to privacy.

How long before I get adds from for verizon with every text message I receive from a friend... or directly from verizon.

Hmmm... how long till companies start claiming advertising rights on their own numbers and such.

Laura

"we’re playing by the rules. No shame in that."

Nya nya nya! F--- you, you whiny customers!

R. chadha

I am very disturbed even at the thought of it.

Jim

I will allow the advertisments if you are willing to pay me to receive them. If the advertisers are not willing to pay, I am not willing to receive.

Stephen Brown

Just wanted to let you know that we have drafted a sample e-mail text that people can copy and send to FCC Commissioners. You can see the text as well as e-mail addresses of the commissioners at:

Outrage: An Open Letter to the FCC
http://networkinstruments.wordpress.com/2007/10...

Paul

I think people are misunderstanding this whole thing. Verizon is NOT selling your phone number to telemarketers and that is not what you are opting out of. I think most people here get that but there are a lot of people online who are saying things like, "phew, now that I have opted-out they can't sell my number to telemarketers."

They are looking to share CPNI which excludes your phone number, name and address. We can debate whether or not we want them to do that but sharing CPNI is FAR FAR different than selling your phone number to telemarketers.

--Paul

Brittany

I just found out about this this morning...I received 3 text messages starting at 4:30 AM from a porn site! Unbelievable...I would like to see a boycott instituted on Verizon and have someone take this up with the FCC.

PS: the porn site texts that i received...i called Verizon back and found out that I was CHARGED FOR THEM.

StoneyBones

Verizon clearly cannot be trusted with any data as they have continually been shown incapable of securing that data, even giving it without consent to the federal government in the past and currently gives the FBI unfettered access to its network as can be read from WIRED:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/whistl...

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