OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Sprint Nextel Corp. has modified how its customers reach an automated service line and how their identities are verified following concerns raised by customers about their privacy on a Web site.
According to Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Jennifer Walsh, subscribers who called customer service wanting to sign up for international calling plans were given a separate phone number to call to register for the service. The phone number featured an automated system that verified customers’ identity and registered them for the service. However, the first verification question wasn’t entirely a question—the customer’s address was presented and they were then asked to confirm that it was correct.
Concerns about the system, and the presentation of the customers’ address, were first raised by readers of Web site boingboing.com over the weekend, according to Sprint Nextel’s Walsh.
“We took a look at what the point of concern was, and technically, there was nothing done that was not within privacy and security laws, federal and state,” Walsh said. However, she added, “We recognize that there is high sensitivity to personal information, even an address, being released.”
So within days, Sprint Nextel had revised the way the process works: Instead of first presenting the customer’s address, the system now asks a verification question that customers must answer in order to confirm their identity. Also, Walsh said, instead of giving out the number for the automated service, a customer service representative will transfer the caller to the line instead—and, she noted, “when someone talks to a customer care rep, there is verification going on.”
Walsh said that in terms of guarding customers’ privacy, the carrier wanted to “address not only that we’re doing it the right way, but that we’re sensitive to perception and want to make sure that people are comfortable,” Walsh said.
