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gabriele


Verizon's New 'Rewards' Program Tracks Your Internet Usage -

Verizon has revamped the company's rewards program, and now requires that users allow their online behavior to be tracked and sold to participate. Verizon recently unveiled Verizon Up, a replacement for the company's Smart Rewards program. Under Verizon Up, users can earn credits for every $300 they spend on Verizon Wireless products and services. Customers can then use those credits to get discounts on a rotating crop of goods and services, including movie tickets and some streaming services. But to participate in Verizon Up, users need to agree to enroll in Verizon Selects, which collects, monetizes and shares user internet browing and app usage data with a rotating crop of companies. Who those companies are isn't entirely clear, and Verizon's participation agreement doesn't help all that much. "We do not share information that identifies you personally outside of Verizon as part of this program other than with vendors and partners who do work for us," the website says. "We require that these vendors and partners protect the information and use it only for the services they are providing us." Ars Technica recently asked Verizon who gets your browsing and other data, and didn't have much luck gaining clarity. Verizon only pointed the website to the company's privacy policy, which only informs users that the company shares customer data "within our family of companies," as well as with vendors and partners. In short, that could be pretty much anybody. You'll recall that Verizon played a starring role in lobbying to kill new broadband privacy protections at the FCC. At the heart of those protections were the requirement that companies need to be completely transparent about what data is collected, and which companies it's being shared with. If you don't like having your data collected, Verizon's solution is simply not to use the rewards program. "We give our customers choice and control," Verizon insists. "They have the choice to opt in and participate in the program, and if they do choose to participate, they have the choice to opt out at any time,"read comment(s)


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