Outrage: Verizon Wireless wants to sell your personally identifiable data

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Interesting how FCC rules work in favor of the telcos

From http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/phoneaboutyou.html :

If your telephone company uses your customer information for other marketing, it must obtain your approval to do so. The company may request your approval orally, in writing, or electronically. The request must contain specific disclosures about how your telephone company will use your customer information. The company can request your approval using one of two methods:

1) “Opt-Out” – Your telephone company sends you a notice saying it will consider you to have given your approval to use your customer information for marketing unless you tell it not to do so (usually within 30 days.)

2) “Opt-In” – Your telephone company sends you a notice asking that you expressly give it permission to use your customer information for marketing.

Your telephone company must obtain your “opt-out” or “opt-in” approval before it can share your customer information within the company to sell you services you don’t already purchase, i.e., to sell you wireless service if you only subscribe to local and long distance service. If your telephone company obtains your “opt-out” or “opt-in” approval, it may also disclose your customer information, for the purpose of marketing communications-related services, to its agents, affiliates, joint venture partners and independent contractors that provide communications-related services. To disclose your customer information to agents, affiliates, joint venture partners, or independent contractors that do not provide communications-related services, or to any other third parties, your telephone company must obtain your “opt-in” approval. If your telephone company discloses your customer information to joint venture partners or independent contractors, it must enter into agreements with them to keep your customer information confidential.
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Funny it can be opt in or opt out.. What business in their right mind would use opt in? The law should read opt in only!

Nice to see our gov't still underestimates the power of corporate greed!

Comparative to other developed nations, we're still getting raped with cell phone service fees. Yet these companies want to make more money off us through backroom deals to send unsolicited advertising to our cellphones.

What's next you must listen to an ad before your call is connected?
 
Deejay Dan said:
What's next you must listen to an ad before your call is connected?
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I read an article a while back about a company in the UK, I think, thats offering free cell phone service thats ad sponsored I'll see if I can dig it up
 
Jeff Romard said:
I read an article a while back about a company in the UK, I think, thats offering free cell phone service thats ad sponsored I'll see if I can dig it up
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Thanks Jeff. If you think about it at every turn consumers have deflected advertising. VCRs came out, people could record shows and fast forward past commercials. When DVD's came out that pretty much stopped because stand alone DVD recorders weren't readily available and affordable, advertisers could hope everyone switched to DVD's. Then came along DVRs, which allowed you to easily record TV shows and fast forward through the commercials.

Then the marketing "geniuses" that be came up with product placement. Have the lead in shows like CSI Miami drive a Hummer, Seinfeld drink Pepsi, etc.

The past year or so you have TV stations showing previews of the upcoming shows on the bottom of the screen during programing... It won't be very long before that becomes advertising space. They're just getting us used to distractions during programming, as if 1/3 of the show time being commercials weren't enough. I wouldn't be surprised if 10 years from now ads take up a 1/4 or 1/3 of screen space during programing.

Cellphones are almost like the last frontier for advertisers. It really depends on implementation but I'm sure it will be in your face advertising. Open your phone see an ad or an ad gets sent to your phone and you get a ring tone thinking you have a message or call only to see what amounts to spam. Heck my current provider, prepaid mind you, constantly sends me spam to by more units it beeps as if I got a text message and I cannot opt-out.

The difference here is phones are typically something don't accept advertising on as "a fact of life". We don't like advertising on phones as evidenced by establishment of the national do not call list. We're used to picking up the phone, placing a call or sending a text message and putting it back down whilst not being interrupted in the process by spam.

We're already paying a hefty fee for cellphones, companies are making booku bucks just off our access charges alone yet greed drives them to make our cellphones nuinence items. The problem is people are too complacent many will complain, some may even cancel their service but it won't be enough to make them stop this shenanigans.

I don't get it at every turn consumers have stymied advertising yet advertisers still pushed harder..Yes they get their name out there but at what cost? People resent being annoyed, that's for sure.
 
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