[iwar] [fc:Phone.Companies.Preparing.to."Share".Personal.Info]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-12-30 19:56:36
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Hezbollah's.latest.weapon.in.propaganda.war]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Judge:.FBI's.PC-snooping.perfectly.lawful]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Message-Id: <200112310356.fBV3uaE12152@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 19:56:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Phone.Companies.Preparing.to."Share".Personal.Info]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Customers of Qwest, the Bell monopoly covering 14 midwestern and western
states from Minnesota to Washington, recently enclosed a small,
easily-missed brochure with customer bills. This brochure, similar to the
ones sent out by banks in the summer of 2001, informs telephone customers
that unless they devote time and effort to opting out, their personal
information will be "shared with" other companies controlled by Qwest
(including unregulated subsidiaries which could use the information to get
a leg up on competitors). What's more, in the fine print, Qwest claims the
right to disseminate or sell customers' personal and private information
-- including calling records -- whenever it believes that it is
"commercially reasonable," even if the consumer does opt out.... Making
the pretense of care for consumers' privacy a sham.

Here's the text of Qwest's announcement, together with "translations" of
some of its language.

--Brett 

-----------------

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING YOUR QWEST ACCOUNT INFORMATION

The following information does not impact your Qwest billing.

So, we're hoping you will be too busy paying your bills and dealing with
other logistics of daily life to read it.

Qwest has a long history of treating customer account information
confidentially. We think that's one reason you trust us.

Actually, we know that most telephone consumers do not trust their local
telephone companies one bit, but believe that their account information is
required by law to be treated confidentially. By sending you this small
brochure, which you're likely to miss, we're hoping to shore up our legal
position in the event that consumers become (justifiably) outraged at what
we are about to do.

As we develop new services, we want to maintain your trust while
continuing to meet your service needs with innovative products. By
sharing account information among Qwest's family of companies, and by
aggregating information to learn more about trends and purchasing
patterns, we can serve you better.

...by sending you promotional literature, unsolicited e-mail, and similar
unwanted marketing material. We also want to get a leg up on those pesky
competitors who dare to challenge our monopolies (or near-monopolies) in
telephone directories and local exchange service, or who are attempting to
provide wireless service in our rightful domain.

All telecommunications carriers have a duty to treat customer account
information confidentially, by law. If you don't currently subscribe to a
particular telecommunications service, you have a right to prohibit us
from sharing account information for marketing purposes with other Owest
business divisions. For, example, if you have local service with Qwest
but not wireless service, you can ask us not to share the local service
information with the wireless part of our business.

However, we have taken the liberty of reinterpreting your rights under the
law to consist of the right to opt OUT, not a requirement that you
specifically opt IN.

Account information includes details about your service, such as how many
lines you have; features you may subscribe to or use (such as Caller ID,
Call Waiting, and Last Call Return); information about wireless services,
if you have them; as well as calling and billing records. For toll calls
that you are billed for, the information includes the number the call
comes from, the number it goes to and how many minutes the call takes.

We will make all of this information available to parties whom you
probably would not want to see it unless you explicitly opt out.

We expect to share account information with Qwest companies, many of
which you probably already know. These include Owest Corporation (your
local telephone company), Owest Wireless, Owest DEX (our directories
division), Owest Communications Corporation (our long distance division),
and our Internet operations. In the future we may change our structure or
enter new lines of business (for example, we hope to offer interexchange
long distance services in our states over the next year or two). As such
changes happen, we will also share account information when it helps to
provide you quality services, packages and promotions.

You don't have to do anything to permit us to use your information. If
you do not want us to share account information within the Qwest family
of companies, let us know within the next 30 days. Residential customers
should call toll free 1-877-628-3732.

When you call this number, you will be asked to enter your phone number
via your Touch Tone keypad. While this would be sufficient to allow you to
opt out, it will not be the end of the process. Instead, you'll be put on
hold -- and, if you're patient enough, will be connected to an operator,
who will ask you again for your number (as if you had not already entered
it) and then for other information. We're hoping that the process will be
inconvenient enough that you won't complete it.

For business customers, contact your Qwest representative or call the
business office telephone number on your Qwest bill. Both business and
residential customers may also let us know their preference by using the
following web site: www.qwest.com/cpni.

At this Web site, you'll be asked to enter far more information than is
necessary to identify your account. We hope that you will find this
process to be too inconvenient to complete, and/or will make a mistake
when entering the information so that we can justify disqualifying your
request.

If we do not hear from you within 30 days, we'll use the account
information in the ways described here.

We are not, however, specifying when this 30-day period begins. It is, of
course, to our advantage to start it as early as possible -- at the date
printed on your bill, for example, rather than the date when you get it.
This way, if you don't pay your bill until the due date, or are late in
paying it, you may miss the deadline by the time you see this notice.

Of course, if you change your mind in the future, you can always contact
us to change your decision.

But if you opt out even one day late, we can't, of course, take back the
information that we will already have distributed.

Whatever you decide will not affect the quality of the Qwest products and
services you use now or your ability to order new products from us in the
future. But, it may mean you are not informed of special offers or new
products or services, packaged offerings, or promotions.

Even if you notify us not to use account information for marketing
purposes, by law we can and do use such information for reasons you might
expect -- billing, collection, and protecting ourselves and others
against unlawful acts such as fraud or theft of service. And your name,
address and telephone number are not generally considered confidential
account information.

Therefore, we reserve the right to sell this information to marketers, et
cetera, even if you opt out and/or have an unlisted telephone number.

We also mingle information together about groups or categories of
services or customers so that specific customers are not identified.

We will, of course, provide your account information to anyone you want
us to  such as other carriers or service providers  so long as the
request comes from you personally and is in writing.

We also sometimes disclose account information to third parties who are
not part of the Qwest family of companies when required by law, when it
furthers prompt and accurate delivery of your service, or when it is
commercially reasonable to do so.

Needless to say, as a publicly traded corporation, we believe that it is
"commercially reasonable" to maximize our return to our stockholders. So,
now that we have "notified" you of this policy by including a small slip
with your phone bill, we will reserve the right to sell your name,
address, and telephone number to anyone who will pay a sufficient price --
even if you have attempted to opt out or have an unlisted telephone number.

So, we provide account information when presented with lawful demands by
regulatory agencies, subpoenas, or law enforcement. Qwest is also
required to provide account information to other carriers when they tell
us you have consented and they need the information to offer you their
services. We may provide account information to companies where the
"service package" involves part of a Qwest service (a DSL line, for
example) and part of another company's service (like Internet access), so
that the service you receive works despite there being two companies
involved. There are other examples, also.

And we are leaving ourselves a large loophole here by failing to be
specific about what they are.

We may provide account information to companies that provide support
services to us (such as billing or account management) and to firms that
have marketing agreements with us.

Which any firm can probably establish with us if it is not a competitor
and is willing to pay a sufficient amount of money.

We also may disclose account information if we decide to sell a line of
business to another company, so that you can continue to receive service
with as little disruption as possible.

We believe our information practices promote your interests and ours.

But mostly ours.

We are better able to understand the kinds of services you have and might
like to receive in the future.

And lock you in as a customer before a competitive market can rear its
ugly head.

And we can limit our contacts with you to those times when we have
products you may be interested in hearing about.

Which we, rather than you, will determine.

Please note: Not all of Owest's information practices are included in
this short notice about account information. Also, we may make changes in
the future to the way in which we share account information internally or
disclose it outside our company. You can learn more about Qwest's privacy
policies and information practices by visiting Qwest's web site at
www.qwest.com.

However, the privacy policy posted there, which can be reached by clicking
link at the bottom of the home page which says "Privacy," is riddled with
even more loopholes than the stated policies in this brochure. And at the
end, there's an especially chilling statement:

"To improve the services it can offer you, Qwest may opt to expand its
capabilities for obtaining information about users in the future."

Does this give you the creeps? If so, you'll have to complain to your
legislators and hope that, somehow, you can overcome the influence of our
large campaign contributions and constant lobbying. Good luck.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Tiny Wireless Camera under $80!
Order Now! FREE VCR Commander!
Click Here - Only 1 Day Left!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/WoOlbB/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Hezbollah's.latest.weapon.in.propaganda.war]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Judge:.FBI's.PC-snooping.perfectly.lawful]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 21:00:00 PST