from Hacker News

Tell HN: If you use Verizon, opt out of “Custom Experience”

by beervirus on 12/16/21, 7:31 PM with 108 comments

• by uxamanda on 12/16/21, 9:48 PM

  Not sure how many times I have opt-ed out of Verizon's cool new surveillance feature, this appears to be a new one. I will say the typo in the copy that says they might, for example, mark me as a "spots lover" is pretty nice [0]. Bring on the leopard spam!

  [0] 'The program uses information about websites you visit and apps you use on your mobile device, your Verizon Fios services, device location and Customer Proprietary Network Informationn (CPNI), including phone numbers you call and those that call you, to help us understand your interests, like "spots lover" or "gamer."'

• by LeoPanthera on 12/16/21, 8:43 PM

  I think most/all networks have something like this.

  T-Mobile’s can be turned off at: https://www.t-mobile.com/account/profile/line-selector/adver...

  But you have to turn each line off one-by-one, there’s no master switch.

• by unyttigfjelltol on 12/17/21, 12:09 AM

  I simply responded directly to Verizon that they are devaluing their premium brand by even asking to surveil & advertise to me.

  I pay them 10x or 100x directly what they are going to make with this info and it literally puts their business with me in jeopardy. I also can say it's going to be topic #1 or #2 in conversation about them.

  The VP or whoever at Verizon came up with this penny-grabbing scheme is a loser and should be fired.

• by pinewurst on 12/16/21, 7:40 PM

  There's actually two to opt out of - "Custom Experience" and the even more invasive "Custom Experience Plus"

• by blintz on 12/16/21, 10:44 PM

  This is so slimy and infuriating, and it increasingly seems like they will continue to ‘reset’ everyone’s opt-out until enough people get tired/miss the update.

  Is there a tech solution? How can we minimize the amount of data that they can even collect? For example, I wonder if just changing DNS (and ideally doing DNS-over-HTTPS) would eliminate most of it. As far as call metadata, I’d say the answer is probably just using some less slimy provider (Signal etc).

• by csnover on 12/16/21, 8:44 PM

  Previous discussion, with more background on this change: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29479114

• by petarb on 12/16/21, 8:53 PM

  Anyone know if AT&T has a program like this? I’d be curious to know so I can opt out as well

• by diamondap on 12/16/21, 9:30 PM

  Thanks for mentioning this. Since I turned on Verizon's spam blocking feature, all texts from Verizon are marked as junk. (And I didn't even configure that, Verizon just blocked itself out of the box.) Anyway, I found the message in spam, but it's impossible to opt out right now because the site is having problems.

• by olyjohn on 12/16/21, 9:31 PM

  Why does this keep coming up? You opt-out, then they opt you back in to something "new" 3 months later. Just keep doing it until everybody is opted in. This is bullshit.

• by isitdopamine on 12/16/21, 9:31 PM

  Words can’t describe how much I despise PR jargon!

  “more relevant offers” now universally means “we’ll spy on you, so we can get more money from you!”

• by tentacleuno on 12/16/21, 8:42 PM

  Reminds me of O2. Their app actually requests access to your contacts (!) on Android, for no apparent reason (I see no phonebook feature in the app). Very dodgy, and I ended up isolating it in the Work profile.

• by asadlionpk on 12/16/21, 8:41 PM

  Maybe a brain fart but can they even monitor more than just domain names?

• by userbinator on 12/16/21, 11:10 PM

  Is it just me or does anyone else notice that everything which has the word "experience" in its name or marketing material seems to be user-hostile these days?

• by accumulator on 12/20/21, 9:51 PM

  The most shocking thing about this new preference is not the obvious fact that Verizon is blatantly trying to collect even more data about their users in creepy ways (or that it was "opt in" by default, which should probably be illegal), but rather how badly their announcement was written. Sample below from their email. The shocking part is that there is absolutely zero benefit to the user.

  "Introducing Verizon Custom Experience. It’s your experience, tailored to your interests. The program uses information about websites you visit and apps you use on your mobile device to help us better understand your interests. This helps us personalize our communications with you, give you more relevant product and service recommendations, and develop plans, services and offers that are more appealing to you."

• by baby-yoda on 12/17/21, 12:43 AM

  Tired of the carriers. They are all the same, no safe alternative.

  Is twilio SuperSIM feasible as a self managed mobile service in the US? Can I pop in a sim, roam without thought and manage voice/sms/data accordingly? Will switch ASAP if so.

• by adultSwim on 12/16/21, 8:30 PM

  Is this only for Verizon Wireless or does it apply to their fiber service as well?

• by Tijdreiziger on 12/16/21, 9:05 PM

  If you use T-Mobile Netherlands (or Tele2/Ben/Simpel), go to My [T-Mobile|Tele2|Ben|Simpel] > More > Personal Data > Privacy Settings and switch the appropriate options to 'No'.

• by basisword on 12/16/21, 11:48 PM

  OT/meta: has anyone else noticed an increase in low effort tell/ask HN posts over the last year or so? Seems like there has been a large increase to me and they resemble karma farming Reddit posts, that while they may generate lots of comments, bring little actual value. As a counter example, here is a better post with an article discussing the same thing as this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29479114

• by dillondoyle on 12/17/21, 12:13 AM

  Most of the major telecoms seemed to tried to get into this ad targeting business. I think there is still Verizon Media and they still have a DSP?

  To me it makes huge sense to allow advertisers to bid on known user data - since cookies, IP address, iOS policy are killing that type of targeting for everyone except google.

  But they never seem to make it work and bridge that gap.

  ATT was looking to sell Xandr though they might not be going through with that I haven't read anything about it recently.

• by more_corn on 12/16/21, 9:32 PM

  If you use Verizon they have reverted/ignored your privacy settings. You should switch carriers immediately. You should also report them to your state’s attorney general. This is illegal (at least it is in my state)

  This kind of behavior cannot be permitted. Perhaps a fine (I propose $50M) would help remind them of their obligations to their customers’ privacy preferences.

• by masterof0 on 12/16/21, 9:10 PM

  I get a 404. So they probably disabled the site.

• by larrymcp on 12/16/21, 10:57 PM

  I see a lot of vitriol in this thread, but I can't seem to understand what harm would actually be caused?

  Would appreciate it if someone could give me an example or two. As in, "A bad thing that can happen to you as a result of Verizon's actions is: [insert actual bad thing that can happen here]"

• by moritonal on 12/17/21, 12:01 AM

  For such a "free market" the US has it really seems like Version can really annoy you without any competition. All hail StarLink!

• by Humdeee on 12/16/21, 10:34 PM

  So you opt out of letting them personalize and communicate to you what they're going to track for themselves anyway. Pretty naive.

• by brutal_chaos_ on 12/16/21, 9:21 PM

  I'm on a Verizon phone currently and that link gives me a 404. Perhaps the service hasn't rolled out to everyone yet?

• by NoblePublius on 12/16/21, 11:55 PM

  Verizon Fios keeps asking me permission to take a voiceprint for security purposes.

• by dorianmariefr on 12/16/21, 10:52 PM

  VPN + DNS over HTTPS might solve part of this, then using VoIP for calls/texts

• by exabrial on 12/17/21, 12:12 AM

  Totally agree.

• by fashiontechguru on 12/16/21, 7:56 PM

  Thank you!

• by paul7986 on 12/16/21, 8:36 PM

  Is that even real ... if you don't know already it's best to avoid/ignore and even block dumb stuff(texts) like that... most of it from scammers who want you to click a link to their site and do whatever bad thing their goal is.