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

T-Mobile raised eyebrows – and received unflattering press attention – when the Wall Street Journal reported on its new privacy-intrusive advertising program. As of April 26, T-Mobile says it will use its customers’ web browsing and application usage information to sell targeted ads, unless customers subscribe.

It sounds very whimsical. No one likes to think that someone is watching and cataloging all the websites they visit. But it is also a good example of how much of our data can be and what is collected through our mobile devices and how few rules there are for the carriers we have to trust.

It’s not really clear what T-Mobile’s new program is or how it differs from the current T-Mobile advertising program. As a T-Mobile customer, I was personally annoyed to discover that I was automatically signed up for this app, which uses data including the apps on my phone and ‘broadband information’ to target ads to me. T-Mobile did not respond to a request for clarification, but said it would share more about its advertising partnerships when the new privacy policy takes effect at the end of April.

What T-Mobile does, however, is not uncommon and it is not new. Verizon and AT&T have been doing this for years. Mobile service providers long ago realized that they have two ways to earn money from their customers: what the customers pay to use their services, and what the carriers earn by selling the data the paying customers if they use these services. The former is clear and obvious to the customer, especially if the monthly bill is payable. The latter is buried under long and confusing privacy policies and account settings, and most customers do not even know this is happening.

Here’s how it works: when you use a service provider’s mobile network (LTE, 4G, 5G, etc.), the service provider then knows which websites you visit, mobile applications you use, phone calls you make – basically everything you do over its network unless you have taken measures to obscure it, such as using an encrypted messaging service such as Signal or a mobile VPN. There are privacy laws that restrict some that your service provider may disclose or use without your express consent (or a court order), but selling data that is not attached to personally identifiable information is generally good. So that’s what they’re doing.

The new program from T-Mobile is notable because it is more aggressive in the types of data it collects and that customers are automatically subscribed to it. Verizon and AT & T’s Personalized Advertising Programs Using Web Browser Information – Verizon Selects and AT & T’s Enhanced Relevant Advertising Program, respectively, are subscribers.

“Our customers need to make an affirmative choice to join our plans that allow the use of location information or where customers go on the Internet to offer third-party ads,” a Verizon spokesman told Recode.

But in addition to the opt-in programs, Verizon and AT&T also automatically subscribe to their other advertising programs that collect less detailed information.

AT&T has “Relevant Advertising”, which uses your “non-sensitive information” (age group, zip code, gender) to target you with ads, including ads offered by its digital and TV advertising network, Xandr, named after Alexander Graham Bell, who invented telephones and certainly never saw anything like it come out of it. AT&T also sells your data to third parties to target you with advertisements.

Verizon has its business and marketing insights and relevant mobile advertising programs. Business and Marketing Insights sells total information to other businesses that may want to know how many Verizon users in a certain demographic go to a website or go to a store or use an app. Relevant mobile advertising uses your general information – much like AT & T’s relevant advertising program – and also shares the information with its own Verizon Media advertising platform and network, which sends targeted ads to websites, programs and even your TV.

In addition to the two programs, Verizon also chooses to share your customer-protected network information (for example, the calls you make and receive) with its own companies and subsidiaries to market more Verizon products and services to you. Verizon says you need to get permission to do this, but it also believes that you do not choose to be consent within a certain time.

So all these cell phone providers are still trying to make money from your data, just less intimate types.

As the Wall Street Journal noted, the advertising business of Verizon and AT&T is much larger than that of T-Mobile, and maybe T-Mobile is just trying to catch up here, and it’s a little tricky to get as many users as possible plate. It is also trying to get its new Sprint customers, who previously had to opt for this type of data collection and use, on the same page as existing T-Mobile users.

Here’s a little highlight: these companies claim that they do not attach your personal information, such as your real name or address, to this data. They only have a large anonymous customer base that you can use as total data, or they give you a unique identification, attach a bunch of categories based on interests or demographic information derived from your data, and then provide it third-party advertisers to target their ads. This is supposed to prevent advertisers from knowing your real identity, but depending on what is used as an identifier and how specifically the data associated with that identifier can be easy enough to recognize you by it. You just have to trust that T-Mobile (or Verizon or AT&T) and their advertising partners will not do it.

Unless you live in Maine, these businesses do not need your permission to collect many of these items. They are also not exactly careful with your data, as shown by the many fines from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that these companies have incurred over the years for violating the few privacy rules that exist.

It does not have to be this way. The Obama-era FCC sought to establish privacy rules that required broadband service providers to obtain permission from users before sharing certain information, including websites they visit and programs they use. But the Republican-led Congress, a few months after Trump took office, overturned these rules.

“The FCC needs to revisit this issue ASAP,” Alan Butler, executive director and president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told Recode.

But the FCC has not yet reviewed this issue, so T-Mobile and the others can still collect, use and benefit from your data while paying for it. They also give you ways to sign out, so why not use them?

T-Mobile:

On the internet: Go to T-Mobile.com > Account > Profile settings > Privacy and notifications > Advertising and Analytics > Turn off ‘Use my data to make ads more relevant to me’ and ‘Use my data for analysis and reporting’.

On the T-Mobile app: Go to “More” on the menu bar > Advertising and Analytics > Turn off ‘Use my data to make ads more relevant to me’ and ‘Use my data for analysis and reporting’.

Verizon

On the internet: Go to www.VerizonWireless.com/myprivacy > Select “Do not share” for customer networking information, business and marketing insights, and relevant mobile advertising.

On the Verizon app: Go to “More” on the menu bar > Tap the account settings ratio icon > Manage privacy settings > Eliminate customer-protected network information, business and marketing insights, and relevant mobile advertising.

AT&T

On the internet: Go to AT & T’s Permission Panel > Relevant advertising > switch usage late to “No”

On the AT&T app: Go to “More” on the menu bar > Profile > Data and privacy > Privacy settings > Relevant advertising > Enable usage to use ‘No’

You can just look at both Verizon and AT & T’s “opt-in” personalized ads while you’re at it, just to make sure you’re not logged in without realizing it through a rogue pop-up with a lot of fine print. (For example, the owners of the AT&T account I used to research this article had no idea when and how they preferred to choose enhanced relevant ads). Follow all the instructions above for AT&T, but click on “Enhanced Relevant Ads.” Follow the instructions above for Verizon, but click “Verizon Selects.”

Of course, you can always opt in (or continue to perform) with all of these advertising programs if you are happy with exchanging some of your most sensitive data for a personalized advertising experience, which according to these businesses is something customers want. According to a report by AT & T’s Xandr advertising platform (consider the source), two-thirds of the people surveyed ” wish ads were more relevant to them and their lifestyle. ”

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

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