Surprisingly my account was defaulted to Opt-out status (or more likely, I did it a long time ago and forgot)

Verizon figured that what I really wanted was to let them sell my personal information (because my privacy is important to them) by setting my default (for all 4 phones) to "Hell yes! Sell the crap out of this guy's personal info".

So I clicked opt-out.

It takes about one minute.

Is this just Verizon Wireless, or Verizon DSL as well?

Thank you for posting this. Just set mine to don't share. I never got anything in the mail from them.

In an attempt to pre-empt some of the confusion that reigned on Slashdot over this story - this is (for now) Verizon Wireless only. VZ landline and DSL and FIOS customers should not (currently) be affected.

Thanks for posting this.
I just opted out.
They really need to make these sort of things opt in, although nobody in their right mind would.

I must have opted out a while ago because all my lines were already set to this. I hat that a company I pay $100+ a month feels compelled to double dip in such shady ways to turn a tiny additional profit on my name. Things like this if opted into should subsidize your monthly fees not pad their margins.

How does this affect the Alltel merge? Do I have to tell Alltel to tell verizon not to sell my info?

thanks, I received that leaflet last week also but noticed there was no easy way (seemingly) to opt out short of calling them. Thai was quick & easy!

Thank you ! I logged on and changed my privacy settings. Very useful information.

@Goatweed: The whole point is that you shouldn't have to do anything to opt-out.

The problem, you see is that if Verizon did it the right way, noone would want to have their personal data sold to marketers and Verzion would make no money. So they take the sleazy route and hope that you are either too lazy or ignore the fact that they are making big dollars by selling your data to a third party.

Verizon is a bunch of bastards for doing this. We had opted out on anything previous. I followed the instructions and opted us out of this get rich quick scheme Verizon is pulling on their paying customers.

Pursuant to Arizona state law they can't share the info! For once this state is doing something right.

It wasn't letting me set the "All Cell Phone Numbers" feature, so I 'opted in' and it wouldn't let me.

Thank goodness. The car warranty calls are bad enough.

Thanks, thanks, thanks. I just opted out. Much appreciated!

A tip of the hat to Consumerist. I fired up my email acc't to forward the NYT story about this to you guys, then double-checked, and you already covered it.
Mad props!

PS: a special award is also forthcoming for the extra-fortified Consumerist Kitty Pix weekend!

The fact that they want to be dicks and make more money off of me by selling my personal information makes me want to just leave them after 10+ years being with them.

"skizsrodt
12:27 PM
How does this affect the Alltel merge? Do I have to tell Alltel to tell verizon not to sell my info?"

I need to know this too. Knowing Alltel, they've already been selling our info, and were never planning on giving us a chance to opt out.

Thanks. Just went to my account. Share was checked (by default?). Changed it.

Verizon Wireless - brought to you by the same people who charge $10.00 for a movie ticket and then make you sit through the same bunch of commercials you would mute on your TV set.

@Borax-Johnson: Verizon isn't selling anything. They're sharing info with people who want to sell you things.

@flamincheney:
If you haven't noticed, verizon is a shady company.

@wee0x1B:
Sharing... nice euphemism.

Does Verizon also have the power to sell my house out from under me unless I opt out first?

Not that anyone would want to sully a good pitchfork party with actual facts, but (a) Verizon Wireless is not *selling* this data, but *sharing* it with its existing business partners (e.g. Vodaphone, who owns half of VZW); and (b) it's not particularly new: they announced this a year and a half ago. Dave Weinberger just got his announcement in the mail and raised a stink about it, which is where the current publicity is coming from. (Kudos to him, however, for figuring out the direct link to the account settings, since VZW does *not* make this very obvious.)

I'm not particularly trying to defend VZW, but the article is wrong where it states that they're selling the material (read TFA more closely), and the commenters here should take a deep breath for the most part.