At Verizon Wireless … Somebody’s Watching Me!

If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer, do you always feel like somebody’s watching you? Like Rockwell’s song. Like, “Somebody’s Watching Me?” Ahem – anyway….

Well, you may want to be aware that Verizon is preparing to share your personal private information (PPI) – such as the calls you make and receive, billing information, technical and service information, and location information – with “affiliates, agents, and parent companies”. Yikes!

But wait, not so fast, let’s not overblow this: this isn’t entirely new. Verizon has been doing this since 2007. It’s just that Verizon is re-updating the agreement in 03.2009. So yes, they’ve already been doing this to you.

Now, Verizon Wireless is currently sending out these notification letters but if you receive your statement online you won’t even be sent a letter. Instead, you can find the letter online through a login to the billing portal. Essentially, the letter suggests you have 45 days to opt out or you “agree” (by inaction/default) that Verizon can share your personal data with whomever they designate as trustworthy.  According to Verizon’s Jim Gerace in a blog post dated Mar 9, 2009, there’s nothing to worry about:

Again, yikes!

If you log into the portal and view your messages, you can find the notice under the “Customer Proprietary Network Information Notice”. That’s where I found it, but it says that it’s “Not available”.  That’s because it’s the 2007 version, I believe. Interesting that the 2009 version isn’t here yet. Many people may have received this in the mail and just threw it away because of the legalese of it all, or, if you do business online like I do, you may not have even been aware of it renewing.

Verizon has been doing some customer hand-holding on their blog about this issue…. and their blog points to these documents as being the CPNIN although it suggests that the 03/2009 documents have been moved and will be updated soon… since they just copied their earlier response … as a response. Jesh.

So how do you opt out of the 2009 version? Here’s the info on the CPNIN copy I downloaded:

When I dialed, I got an autoattendant. I was asked for my phone number, my billing zipcode, and a piece of my SSN. It said that I had successfully opted-out.  That was easy!

I also found you can also do this online I found by going to the My Profile Tab once you’ve logged in, then, down under Phone Controls you can change your CPNI settings.

If you haven’t already opted-out, you may want to. Reduce your spam and junkmail, and keep the prying eyes away from your call log. That’s just between you and Verizon. Well, at least it should be.

R