I am not sure if this was noticed by anyone in mhvlug, but over the weekend blogger David Weinberger http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/dweinbergerfound an Opt Out from Verizon to prevent it from sharing your data with it's "families". This is the entry http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2009/03/07/tales-of-data-pirates-opting-out-of-verizons-open-ended-sharing/ and this is Verizon's response http://policyblog.verizon.com/PolicyBlog/Blogs/policyblog/JimGerace9/590/VerizonWirelessCommentonCPNI2009.aspx and what is interesting to me is that Verizon does not disclose what is required to be a part of the "family" $$$ and the wording seems to sway "..The Opt-Out notices we're providing to our customers are so they can opt-out of our sharing their basic information with other Verizon companies, and that's it..." "...FCC is also clear about this: you use "Opt-Out" with customers if you're looking to share across affiliates/parent companies, etc. - so customers would be getting information from within the same family of products/services. "Opt-In" is required if a company were addressing the issue of sharing customer information beyond - for example to non-telecom services..." <tinfoil hat> What is etc? I am not sure how big of an issue this but since FIOS penetration isn't in my area and I don't want anything else opting out can't hurt. I know Verizon FIOS and Verizon Wireless are two different companies so I guess in order to share information between the two this is required. But in Verizon's blog they cite a similar issue that Ars Technica made a fuss about back in 2007, do you have to Opt Out every time? Or is this just to get all the new customers since then? Also the means by which you Opt Out appears to be somewhat hidden, if you only use online bill pay, or at least not as easy and transparent as it should be. </tinfoil hat> I know these are likely questions that have to be asked directly to Verizon but any thoughts would be appreciated.
-- Matthias A. Johnson matthias.a.johnson aut gmail dot com _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Mar 7 - Web Hack-a-thon - SUNY Newpaltz Apr 1 - EC2 and Cloud Computer May 6 - TBD
