How T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T use your web browsing, app usage, and location data to serve you ads

T-Mobile raised a few eyebrows – and garnered unflattering press attention – when the Wall Street Journal reported on its intrusive new ad program. Starting April 26, T-Mobile said it will use its customers’ web browsing and app usage data to sell targeted ads, unless those customers opt out.

It sounds very scary. No one likes to think that someone is looking and cataloging every website they visit. But it’s also a good example of how much of our data can and is collected via our mobile devices and how few rules apply to operators we are forced to trust.

It’s unclear what T-Mobile’s new program is or how it differs from T-Mobile’s current personalized ads program. As a T-Mobile customer, I was personally upset to find out that I was automatically enrolled in this program, which uses data, including apps on my phone and “broadband information” to target me. ads. T-Mobile did not respond to a request for clarification, but said it will share more about its advertising partnerships when the new privacy policy takes effect at the end of April.

What T-Mobile is doing is not unusual, however, and it is nothing new. Verizon and AT&T have been doing this for years. Mobile operators understood long ago that they had two ways of making money with their customers: what those customers pay to use their services, and then, what operators earn by selling the data. these paying customers provide when they use these services. The first is clear and obvious to the customer, especially when the monthly invoice is due. The latter is buried under long and confusing privacy policies and account settings, and most customers don’t even know it’s happening.

Here’s how it works: When you use an operator’s cellular network (LTE, 4G, 5G, etc.), that operator then knows what sites you are visiting, what mobile apps you are using, what phone calls you are making – essentially anything you do on its network, unless you’ve taken steps to obscure it, like using an encrypted messaging service like Signal or a mobile VPN. There are privacy laws that limit how much your carrier can disclose or use without your express permission (or a court order), but marketing data that is not linked to personally identifiable information is generally good. . So that’s what they do.

T-Mobile’s new program is notable because it is more aggressive in the types of data it collects and the fact that customers are automatically enrolled in it. Verizon and AT & T’s personalized advertising programs that use web browsing information – Verizon Selects and AT & T’s Enhanced Relevant Advertising program, respectively – are opt-in.

“Our customers must make an affirmative choice to accept our plans that would allow the use of location information or where customers go on the web to serve third-party advertisements,” a Verizon spokesperson told Recode.

But next to opt-in programs, Verizon and AT&T also automatically sign you up for their other ad programs that collect less detailed information.

AT&T offers “relevant ads,” which use your “non-sensitive information” (age range, zip code, gender) to target you with ads, including those served by its digital and television advertising network, Xandr, which carries named after Alexander Graham Bell, who invented telephones and surely never saw anything like it come out of them. AT&T also sells your data to third parties to target you with advertisements.

Verizon has its relevant business and marketing information and mobile advertising programs. Business and Marketing Insights sells aggregated information to other businesses who might want to know how many Verizon users in a certain demographic are accessing a website, going to a store, or using an app. Relevant mobile advertising uses your background information – much the same things as AT & T’s Relevant Advertising program – and also shares that information with its own Verizon Media advertising platform and network, which sends targeted advertising. to websites, apps, even your TV.

In addition to these two programs, Verizon also offers to share your proprietary network information (for example, the calls you make and receive) with its own companies and affiliates to bring you more Verizon products and services. Verizon says it needs to get your consent to do this, but it also considers that you don’t unsubscribe within a certain period of time to be consent.

So all of these cell carriers are still trying to make money off your data, just less intimate types.

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, Verizon and AT&T’s advertising operations are much bigger than T-Mobile’s, so maybe T-Mobile is just trying to catch up here, and it is a little devious to attract as many users as possible on the board. It is also trying to put its new post-merger Sprint customers, who previously had to opt for this type of data collection and use, on the same page as existing T-Mobile users.

There is a small bright spot here: These companies claim that they do not attach your personal information, like your real name or address, to this data. Either they lump you together with a large number of anonymous customers to use as aggregate data, or they give you a unique ID, attach a bunch of categories based on interests or demographic information inferred from your data to that ID, and then give advertisers third parties to target their advertisements. This is supposed to prevent advertisers from knowing your real identity, but depending on what is used as an identifier and the specifics of the data attached to that identifier, it might be quite easy to re-identify you with it. You just have to trust that T-Mobile (or Verizon or AT&T) and their advertising partners won’t.

Unless you live in Maine, these companies don’t need to get your permission to collect a lot of this stuff. They also don’t pay much attention to your data, as demonstrated by the numerous Federal Communication Commission (FCC) fines these companies have incurred over the years for breaking the few privacy rules that exist.

It doesn’t have to be that way. The Obama-era FCC attempted to enact privacy rules that would require broadband service providers to obtain users’ permission before sharing certain information, including the websites they visit and the applications they visit. ‘they use. But the Republican-led Congress overturned those rules a few months after Trump took office.

“The FCC must reconsider this matter as soon as possible,” Alan Butler, executive director and chairman of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told Recode.

But the FCC has yet to revisit this, so T-Mobile and others can still collect, use, and enjoy your data for now, while you actually pay them the privilege. They also allow you to opt out, so why not use them?

T Mobile:

On the Web: Go to T-Mobile.com > Account > Profile settings > Confidentiality and notifications > Advertising and Analytics > Disable “Use my data to make ads more relevant to me” and “Use my data for analytics and reporting”.

On the T-Mobile app: Go to “More” in the menu bar > Advertising and Analytics > Disable “Use my data to make ads more relevant to me” and “Use my data for analytics and reporting”.

Verizon

On the Web: Go to www.VerizonWireless.com/myprivacy > Select “Do not share” for information about the customer’s own network, sales and marketing information, and relevant mobile advertising.

On the Verizon app: Go to “More” in the menu bar > Tap the gear icon for account settings > Manage privacy settings > Disable customer’s own network information, sales and marketing information, and relevant mobile advertising.

AT&T

On the Web: Access the AT&T ‘Consent Dashboard’ > Relevant advertising > switch authorizes use on “No”

On the AT&T app: Go to “More” in the menu bar > Profile > Data confidentiality > Privacy settings > Relevant advertising > Toggle allow use to “No”

Additionally, you can also check out the personalized ads from Verizon and AT&T while you’re at it, just to make sure you haven’t signed up without realizing it through a sneaky pop-up with lots of fine print (the owners of the AT&T account that I used to search for this article, for example, were unsure of when or how they opted for enhanced relevant advertising). For AT&T, just follow all of the instructions above, but click on “Enhanced Relevant Advertising”. For Verizon, follow the instructions above, but click on “Verizon Selects”.

Of course, you can still sign up (or stay signed up) for all of these ad programs if you’re happy enough to trade in some of your more sensitive data for a personalized ad experience, which these companies insist customers do. want. According to a report by AT & T’s advertising platform Xandr (consider source), two-thirds of those surveyed “would like ads to be more relevant to them and their lifestyle.”

I have never personally met one of these people despite their supposed majority in the population, but apparently they exist somewhere.

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