For a few years now, T-Mobile has been branding itself the “un-carrier,” saying it’s “synonymous with 100% customer commitment.” Credit where due: we switched from AT&T a few years ago because T-Mobile, alone among U.S. carriers at the time, gave customers a nice cheap unlimited data plan for traveling outside the country.
But now comes this story in the Wall Street Journal:
T-Mobile to Step Up Ad Targeting of Cellphone Customers
Wireless carrier tells subscribers it could share their masked browsing, app data and online activity with advertisers unless they opt out
Talk about jumping on a bandwagon sinking in quicksand. Lawmakers in Europe (GDPR), California (CCPA) and elsewhere have been doing their best to make this kind of thing illegal, or at least difficult. Worse, it should now be clear that it not only sucks at its purpose, but customers hate it. A lot.
I just counted, and all 94 responses in the “conversation” under that piece are disapproving of this move by T-Mobile. I just copied them over and compressed out some extraneous stuff. Here ya go:
“Terrible decision by T-Mobile. Nobody ever says “I want more targeted advertising,” unless they are in the ad business. Time to shop for a new carrier – it’s not like their service was stellar.”
“A disappointing development for a carrier which made its name by shaking up the big carriers with their overpriced plans.”
“Just an unbelievable break in trust!”
“Here’s an idea for you, Verizon. Automatically opt people into accepting a break on their phone bill in exchange for the money you make selling their data.”
“You want to make money on selling customer’s private information? Fine – but in turn, don’t charge your customers for generating that profitable information.”
“Data revenue sharing is coming. If you use my data, you will have to share the revenue with me.”
“Another reason to never switch to T-Mobile.”
“Kudos to WSJ for providing links on how to opt-out!”
“Just another disappointment from T-Mobile. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“We were supposed to be controlled by the government.”
“How crazy is it that we are having data shared for service we PAY for? You might expect it on services that we don’t, as a kind of ‘exchange.’”
“WSJ just earned their subscription fee. Wouldn’t have known about this, or taken action without this story. Toggled it off on my phone, and then sent everyone I know on T Mobile the details on how to protect themselves.”
“Just finished an Online Chat with their customer service dept….’Rest assured, your data is safe with T-Mobile’…no, no it isn’t. They may drop me as a customer since I sent links to the CCPA, the recent VA privacy law and a link to this article. And just to make sure the agent could read it – I sent the highlights too. the response – ‘Your data is safe….’ Clueless, absolutely clueless.”
“As soon as I heard this, I went in and turned off tracking. Also, when I get advertising that is clearly targeted (sometimes pretty easy to tell) I make a mental note to never buy or use the product or service advertised if I can avoid it. Do others think the same?”
“Come on Congress, pass a law requiring any business or non-profit that wants to share your data with others to require it’s customers to ‘opt-in’. We should(n’t) have to ‘opt-out’ to prevent them from doing so, it should be the other way around. Only exception is them sharing data with the government and that there should be laws that limit what can be shared with the government and under what circumstances.”
“There must be massive amounts of money to be made in tracking what people do for targeted ads. I had someone working for a national company tell me I would be shocked at what is known about me and what I do online. My 85 year old dad refuses a smartphone and pays cash for everything he does short of things like utilities. He still sends in a check each month to them, refuses any online transactions. He is their least favorite kind of person but, he at least has some degree of privacy left.”
“Would you find interest-based ads on your phone helpful or intrusive?
Neither–they’re destructive. They limit the breadth of ideas concerning things I might be interested in seeing or buying. I generally proactively look when I want or need something, and so advertising has little impact on me. However, an occasional random ad shows up that broadens my interest–that goes away with the noise of targeted ads overlain and drowning it out. If T-Mobile were truly interested, it would make its program an opt-in program and tout it so those who might be interested could make the choice.”
“Humans evolved from stone age to modern civilization. These tech companies will strip all our clothes.”
“They just can’t help themselves. They know it’s wrong, they know people will hate and distrust them for it, but the lure of doing evil is too strong for such weak-minded business executives to resist the siren call of screwing over their customers for a buck. Which circle of hell will they be joining Zuckerberg in?”
“Big brother lurks behind every corner.”
“What privacy policy update was this? Don’t they always preface their privacy updates with the statement: YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT TO US(?) When did T-Mobile tell its customers our privacy is no longer important to them? And that in fact we are now going to sell all we know about you to the highest bidder. Seems they need at least to get informed consent to reverse this policy and to demonstrate that they gave notice that was actually received and reviewed and understood by customers….otherwise, isn’t this wiretapping by a third party…a crime? Also isn’t using electronic means to monitor someone in an environment where they have the reasonable expectation of privacy a tort. Why don’t they just have a dual rate structure? The more expensive traditional privacy plan and a cheaper exploitation plan? Then at least they can demonstrate they have given you consideration for the surrender of your right to privacy.”
“A very useful article! I was able to log in and remove my default to receive such advertisements “relevant” to me. That said all the regulatory bodies in the US are often headed by industry personnel who are their to protect companies, not consumers. US is the best place for any company to operate freely with regulatory burden. T-mobile follows the European standards in EU, but in the US there are no such restraints.”
“It’s far beyond time for the Congress to pass a sweeping privacy bill that outlaws collection and sale of personal information on citizens without their consent.”
“Appreciate the heads-up and the guidance on how to opt out. Took 30 seconds!”
“Friends, you may not be aware that almost all of the apps on your iPhone track your location, which the apps sell to other companies, and someday the government. If you want to stop the apps from tracking your locations, this is what to do. In Settings, choose Privacy. Then choose Location Services. There you will see a list of your apps that track your location. All of the time. I have switched nearly all of my apps to ‘Never’ track. A few apps, mostly relating to travel, I have set to “While using.” For instance, I have set Google Maps to ‘While using.’ That is how to take control of your information.”
“Thank you for this important info! I use T-Mobile and like them, but hadn’t heard of this latest privacy outrage. I’ve opted out.”
“T-Mobile is following Facebook’s playbook. Apple profits by selling devices and Operating Sysyems. Facebook & T-Mobile profit by selling, ………………… YOU!”
“With this move, at first by one then all carriers, I will really start to limit my small screen time.”
“As a 18 year customer of T-Mobile, I would have preferred an email from T-Mobile about this, rather than having read this by chance today.”
“It should be Opt-In, not Opt-out. Forcing an opt out is a bit slimy in my books. Also, you know they’ll just end up dropping that option eventually and you’ll be stuck as opted in. Even if you opted in, your phone plan should be free or heavily subsidized since they are making dough off your usage.”
“No one automatically agrees to tracking of one’s life, via the GPS on their cell phone. Time to switch carriers.”
“It’s outrageous that customers who pay exorbitant fees for the devices are also exploited with advertising campaigns. I use ad blockers and a VPN and set cookies to clear when the browser is closed. When Apple releases the software to block the ad identification number of my device from being shared with the scum, I’ll be the first to use that, too.”
“It was a pain to opt out of this on T-Mobile. NOT COOL.”
“I just made the decision to “opt out” of choosing TMobile as my new phone service provider. So very much appreciated.”
“Well, T-Mobile, you just lost a potential subscriber. And why not reverse this and make it opt-in instead of opt-out? I know, because too many people are lazy and will never opt-out, selling their souls to advertisers. And for those of you who decide to opt-out, congratulations. You’re part of the vast minority who actually pay attention to these issues.”
“I have been seriously considering making the switch from Verizon to T-Mobile. The cavalier attitude that T-Mobile has for customers data privacy has caused me to put this on hold. You have to be tone deaf as a company to think that this is a good idea in the market place today.”
“Been with T-Mo for over 20 years because they’re so much better for international travel than the others. I don’t plan on changing to another carrier but I’ll opt out of this, thanks.”
“So now we know why T-Mobile is so much cheaper.”
“I have never heard anyone say that they want more ads. How about I pay too much for your services already and I don’t want ANY ads. We need a European style GDP(R) with real teeth in the USA and we need it now!”
“So these dummies are going to waste their money on ads when their service Suckky Ducky! Sorry, but it’s a wasteland of T-Mobile, “No Service” Bars on your phone with these guys. It’s the worst service, period. Spend your money on your service, the customers will follow. Why is that so hard for these dummies to understand?”
“If they do this I will go elsewhere.”
“When will these companies learn that their ads are an annoyance. I do not want or appreciate their ads. I hate the words ‘We use our data to customize the ads you receive.’”
“Imagine if those companies had put that much effort and money into actually improving their service. Nah, that’s ridiculous.”
“Thank you info on how to opt out. I just did so. It’s up to me to decide what advertising is relevant for me, not some giant corporation that thinks they own me.”
“who is the customer out there like, Yeah I want them to advertise to me! I love it!’? Hard to believe anyone would ask for this.”
“I believe using a VPN would pretty much halt all of this nonsense, especially if the carrier doesn’t want to cooperate.”
“I’m a TMobile customer, and to be honest, I really don’t care about advertising–as long as they don’t give marketers my phone number. Now that would be a deal breaker.”
“What about iPhone users on T-Mobile? Apple’s move to remove third party cookies is creating this incentive for carriers to fill the void. It’s time for a national privacy bill.”
“We need digital privacy laws !!! Sad that Europe and other countries are far ahead of us here.”
“Pure arrogance on the part of the carrier. What are they thinking at a time when people are increasingly concerned about privacy? I’m glad that I’m not currently a T-Mobile customer and this seals the deal for me for the future.”
“AT&T won’t actually let you opt out fully. Requests to block third party analytics trigger pop up messages that state ‘Our system doesn’t seem to be cooperating. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please try again later’.”
“One of the more salient articles I’ve read anywhere recently. Google I understand, we get free email and other stuff, and it’s a business. But I already pay a couple hundred a month to my phone provider. And now they think it’s a good idea to barrage me and my family? What about underage kids getting ads – that must be legal only because the right politicians got paid off.”
“Oh yeah, I bet customers have been begging for more “targeted advertising”. It would be nice if a change in privacy policy also allowed you to void your 12 month agreement with these guys.”
“Thank you for showing us how to opt out. If these companies want to sell my data, then they should pay me part of the proceeds. Otherwise, I opt out.”
Think T-Mobile is listening?
If not, they’re just a typical carrier with 0% customer commitment.
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