I just walked out to my mailbox and received “Important Information Regarding Your Privacy” from Verizon Wireless. You probably got one too. Usually I throw these out. You probably do to!
I guess it is lack of sunshine or some related malady, but I actually decided to read the damn thing. Verizon was telling me that it wanted to share my call history with its “Verizon family of companies” but not “unrelated third parties”. Wow, how nice of them. They claimed that they want to share this personal data “to better serve (my) communications needs…”. What great folks at Verizon!
But here is the kicker. Verizon was not asking me to OPT IN to this wonderful opportunity to have my phone records shared. Verizon said that if I did nothing, they would send my private information to their “family of companies”. The Privacy Notice actually required me to OPT OUT by “calling us at 800-333-9956 and following the recorded directions.”.
That’s right. By ignoring the letter, Verizon “… assume(s) that you give us the right to share this information among our affiliates…”. Doing nothing will cause my Privacy Rights to disappear.
I always thought that I retained my rights unless I consented to give my rights away. Well dear reader, it appears that is not the case. It appears that I yield my privacy to corporations unless I actively stop them from taking it.
800-333-9956… CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
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