Verizon Communications and the Federal Communications Commission have reached a $7.4 million settlement following an investigation into the telecom giant’s use of personal consumer information for marketing purposes. The FCC said the fine is the largest ever levied in connection with an investigation related solely to the privacy of telephone customers’ personal information.
According to the FCC, Verizon failed to notify approximately 2 million new customers in their initial bill of their privacy rights, including opt-out options on data collection, before the company accessed that information to market services. The investigation found that the practice ran between 2006 and 2012, with Verizon failing to notify the FCC of the infraction for 126 days after it discovered the issue. Telecom operators are given five days to notify the FCC if an opt-in or opt-out process is not working properly.
In addition to the fine, Verizon will be required to now include opt-out notices on every bill it sends to customers and to put systems in place to “monitor and test its billing systems and opt-out notice process to ensure that customers are receiving proper notices of their privacy rights. Any problems detected that are more than an anomaly must be reported to the commission within five business days, and any noncompliance must be reported as well.”
“In today’s increasingly connected world, it is critical that every phone company honor its duty to inform customers of their privacy choices and then to respect those choices,” explained Travis LeBlanc, acting chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, on the fine. “It is plainly unacceptable for any phone company to use its customers’ personal information for thousands of marketing campaigns without even giving them the choice to opt out.”
Verizon Wireless has a mixed history in dealing with customer privacy concerns. The carrier has fought to keep customer information from online telephone directories and fought against telemarketing calls. Verizon Wireless in 2007 also instituted a procedure to allow customers to opt out of sharing their “proprietary network information.”
However, the carrier has also opened up access to its location-based data and has been at the center of recent government subpoenas.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter?
