Is Verizon stealthily collecting user’s browsing history, location etc?

If reports are to be believed, Verizon might be collecting information about your browsing history, location, apps, and your contacts, all in the name of helping the company “understand your interests.” First spotted by Input, the program is called Verizon Custom Experience and its controls lay buried in the privacy settings on the My Verizon app.

The program, which Verizon appears to automatically opt customers into, introduces two different options that appear in the app, Custom Experience and Custom Experience Plus. Each of these options vary in terms of invasiveness. Verizon provides additional information about both settings within the app, as well as on a FAQ page on its website. While the Custom Experience option appears to be a stripped-down version of Custom Experience Plus, it also helps Verizon “personalize” its “communication with you” and “give you more relevant product and service recommendations” by using “information about websites you visit and apps you use on your mobile device.”

On the other hand, Custom Experience Plus has the same stated purpose - to help Verizon provide you with a more “personalized” experience. But it not only uses information about the websites and apps you use on your mobile device, but it also says it uses your “device location,” along with “phone numbers you call or that call you” to help Verizon “better understand your interests.”

As Verizon explains on its site, it might use your information to, say, present you with an offer that includes music content, or give you a music-related option in its Verizon Up reward program if it knows you like music. Verizon explicitly states that for the more invasive Customer Experience Plus tracking, you “must opt-in to participate and you can change your choice at any time.” Signing up for those Up Rewards, or other promotions with consequences buried in the fine print may have opted customers in unknowingly.