Verizon Wireless has become the latest telecom company to sell data on its customers' calling habits to partners and affiliates, informing customers that unless they call a 1-800 number within thirty days of being notified of the change to "opt out," they'll have granted their implicit permission to share the data.
Verizon Wireless' policy change was noted by Jason Devitt, co-founder of mobile marketing company Skydeck.
Devitt posted a copy of the Verizon policy change notice on the company blog, noting that the list of permitted agents Verizon would share the data with was "pretty broad."
The Verizon agreement allows the data to be shared with [o]ur affiliates, agents and parent companies (including Vodafone) and their subsidiaries," apparently to be used to deliver targeted advertising of other Verizon services by third-party marketers.
Verizon spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson, responding to Devitt's comments, said that "Verizon Wireless isnt - and wont be selling - customer information to advertisers or marketers. This is to share info among Verizon companies only, as per FCC rules."
Sprint Nextel made a similar change to its policies in January 2007, informing customers by mail that if they did not call the provided 1-800 "opt out" number or mail in a form clarifying their desire to opt out, they would be enrolled in the data sharing program.
Nothing personal
Customer calling data, or "customer proprietary network information" (CPNI), doesn't contain personally identifying information such as your name or address.
But CPNI data can be used to track your calling habits, such as whom you call and for how long you speak to them, products you buy from that particular carrier, and options you may request or refuse when making purchases.
Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has restrictions against the sale or sharing of CPNI data, a 2006 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that telecoms and wireless companies did not do enough to oversee the sharing of CPNI data with third-party companies or contractors they hired.
CPNI data was at the core of the many scandals involving the sale of personal cell phone records to third parties, or "pretexting." Companies such as Locatecell.com and Celltolls.com would buy CPNI data from insiders at phone companies and resell it to third parties, ranging from disgruntled spouses to private investigators and law enforcement.
The outcry against pretexting led to Congress passing a law to criminalize the practice, and the FCC to pass new rules strengthening the restrictions against illegally selling or sharing the information.
CPNI data also rests at the heart of the investigation into the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless surveillance on American citizens.
In addition to the actual wiretapping of domestic calls, major telecoms such as AT&T; and Verizon are alleged to have provided calling data from millions of telecom customers to the NSA, in order to investigate the call records for signs of terrorist activity.
