Verizon seeks customers to spam with mobile marketing forever

Verizon is starting to contact customers this week about allowing the telecom to sell their data—including location, browsing information, and mobile app usage—to third-party marketers in exchange for… coupons. The company promises one coupon up front, with the potential for e-mails, texts, snail mail, or mobile ads with more offers based on the data collected.

The program is called Verizon Selects and is Verizon’s attempt to bridge the gap between how marketers reach mobile users and what mobile users (supposedly) want to see from marketers. Verizon says it will analyze the information listed above along with “customer demographic and interest data” to “create specific insights.”

Verizon provides the usual data-sharing reassurance that information that can identify customers personally will not be shared outside of Verizon. Because the program allows marketers to reach customers directly, Verizon Selects is an opt-in program. In the announcement, Verizon does not explicitly state that customers can ever opt out of the program once they’re in; they can only “opt-in or change their choices” on the relevant website.

Basically, if you’re looking to get in, get a free coupon, and get out, be careful. Verizon points out that it runs several other marketing programs “that provide customers with an opt-out choice.”