Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 9th Oct 2012 21:18 UTC
As it turns out, new Verizon customers (although there are reports existing customers are getting notified too) have 30 days to opt out of something really nasty: Verizon will sell your browsing history and location history to marketers. Apparently, AT&T does something similar. Doesn't matter what phone - iOS, Android, anything. Incredibly scummy and nasty. I quickly checked my own Dutch T-Mobile terms, and they don't seem to be doing this.
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RE: Not only Verizon or AT&T
by Alfman on Wed 10th Oct 2012 14:12
in reply to "Not only Verizon or AT&T"
Member since:2011-01-28
capi_x,
"Check Google, Facebook, DoubleClick..."
Well, those are invasive too, but there's a rather large technical difference with those tracking services because one party to the communication (the hosting website) explicitly agreed to the tracking when they intentionally installed the tracking scripts. Javascript cannot reach the depth of ISP based tracking, which can track all unencrypted traffic.
The trouble with man in the middle tracking being discussed in this article is that potentially neither the user nor the website will have given express permission before being tracked (not opt-in). An ISP may just give itself that right by changing it's terms of use.
In any case your conclusion is still correct, the practice of selling user data is more widespread than ATT & Verizon. A bit OT, but I'm particularly peeved that banks/credit cards get away with sharing user purchase history with advertisers. I think it's a primary source of personalized snail-mail spam.
Edited 2012-10-10 14:13 UTC
RE[2]: Not only Verizon or AT&T
by capi_x on Wed 10th Oct 2012 16:48
in reply to "RE: Not only Verizon or AT&T"
Member since:2012-08-29
Features
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