FCC Verizon Fine - Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to pay a $7.4 million settlement to a Federal Communications Commission accusation that the company failed to inform subscribers of their privacy rights or their privilege to opt out from having their information used for marketing.
According to several FCC Verizon fine reports, the company was not able to provide its two million customers required notices starting in 2006 but only discovered the problem six years later. Despite the discovery however, Verizon still did not advise the government of its opt-out omissions until early 2013.
"It is plainly unacceptable for any phone company to use its customers' personal information for thousands of marketing campaigns without even giving them the choice to opt out," Travis LeBlanc, acting chief of the FCC's enforcement bureau, said in a statement obtained by Re/Code.net.
Aside from the $7.4 million FCC Verizon fine - the largest monetary penalty in FCC's settlement history over investigations into telephone customers' personal data privacy, the company from now on is obliged to print opt-out notices on every bill and not just the first one sent to its customers.
The problem which lead to the FCC Verizon fine is a matter of internal issue with the information sharing for marketing purposes only occurring within the company and did not involve other companies, a Verizon spokesman reportedly said. This means that the case did not involve data breach or the unauthorized dissemination of customer information to third parties.
Phone companies are reportedly not allowed to use the personal data they collect from their customers. However, such informations can be used for marketing only if the consumers give their consent.
"Verizon takes seriously its obligation to comply with all FCC rules, and once we discovered the issue with the notices we informed the FCC, fixed the problem and implemented a number of measures to ensure it does not recur," Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden told Reuters of the company's actions toward the problem which lead to the FCC Verizon fine.
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