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Privacy and Customer Security Policies |
| Internet Privacy Policy |
As always, the privacy and security of your personal information is our #1 priority, and we want
you to be aware of how we collect and handle information on our site.
When you visit verizon.com, we may collect the following information about your visit:
• Anonymous statistics collected as you browse the site
• Personal information you knowingly give us
For details about our general and Internet privacy policies, you may select from the topics to the
left or search our privacy FAQs below:
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What does it mean to me for Verizon to be a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program?
The TRUSTe seal confirms that Verizon is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. Verizon wants
you to feel confident about your privacy when using verizon.com, so we have TRUSTe review this
site for compliance with their guidelines. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization
whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of
fair information practices. Contact us
if you have questions or concerns regarding this statement. If your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact
TRUSTe
who will serve as a liaison to resolve your concerns.
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| Information Verizon Collects |
What information does this Web site gather?
Verizon collects personal information such as name, address, and email address,
when you knowingly provide it to us. In addition, Verizon may collect other information
provided by you, such as your credit card number, billing address, Social Security Number (SSN)
and date of birth, when you set up an online account or order service online. Our Web servers
automatically collect statistical information about your visit such as pages visited and which
browsers are used to visit our site. None of this information is associated with you as an
individual (see information about cookies). We use these statistics to
monitor our site's performance and to make it easier for you to use.
If you choose to use an available referral service to tell a friend about our site or a specific
product or service, we will ask for your friend's name and email address. We will then send your
friend a one-time email regarding our site or the featured product or service. Verizon uses
this information for purposes of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of the
referral service.
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What happens when I provide personal information on this Web site?
When you supply information for a specific purpose, such as online ordering of a Verizon service,
we use the information for that purpose.
When you use our Web site to order services, we may use this individually identifiable information
as we would if obtained in a non-electronic manner. Such information may include:
• Publishing your name, address, and phone number in our directories (unless you have requested
a non-published or non-listed number)
• Evaluating your service needs and contacting you regarding additional services you may find useful
If the way we use personally identifiable information changes, Verizon will contact you via email
notifying you of this change and giving you the opportunity to opt out of such use.
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What happens when I provide information on registration forms?
When you choose to register with verizon.com or any other Verizon site, we request accurate
contact information and preferences that help us better serve you. You will always retain the
option to choose if your contact information is used to send you company and product information,
special offers, and in some cases, newsletters.
If you're a local Verizon phone service customer, you may be given the option to register a
profile with us (limited to specific areas). We would then store your name, purchase history,
and billing information to make it easier for you to shop and purchase from us in the future.
Customers have access to their account information on their monthly bills or by establishing an
account online.
At anytime you may:
• Elect not to receive (opt out) marketing email messages. The primary purpose of these messages
is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a Verizon product or service. At any time after the
initial registration, you can opt out by selecting the opt-out cancel option in your profile within the
application itself.
• Update your contact and personal information anytime by updating your account and/or your profile
(where available) within the application.
In order to improve your experience with us, we may decide to improve our site's ability to
obtain information about users. We will update this privacy statement continually to ensure
that you are aware of developments in this area.
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Does Verizon sell or give my information to non-Verizon companies?
No. We do not sell or disclose individually identifiable information obtained online about our
visitors to anyone outside of Verizon. The only exceptions to this rule are the following:
• If you specifically authorize Verizon to share your information with another company
• It is required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or
to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site
• Disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of customers, employees, or property
• Publishing your name, address, and phone number in our directories if you initiate your telephone
service with us online (unless you have requested a non-published or non-listed number)
• Sharing data with our authorized vendors, contractors and agents, only to the extent necessary for
them to perform their work, in order that Verizon can carry out certain functions in marketing and
delivering services to you.
If you provide individually identifiable information at an event Verizon sponsors with another
company, or if you register on a co-sponsored Web site, or if you have elected to participate
in an affinity program (such as airline miles), you may be providing the individually identifiable
information to the co-sponsor as well as Verizon. Review the privacy statement at the event or on
the co-branded site or the affinity site to learn how the partner uses this information.
Be assured that Verizon uses this information in accordance with this privacy policy.
On occasion, Verizon shares non-personally identifiable information with non-Verizon companies in
order to assess the results of a promotion or event. This information is used in aggregate only,
and does not contain any information that would personally identify you.
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Does Verizon accommodate links to other sites?
Yes. Our site contains links to other Web sites. We are not responsible for the content or the
privacy practices employed by other sites. However, in some instances where a service is provided
through a non-Verizon partner or supplier site, such as Online Bill Pay, you can feel confident
that your individually identifiable information will be protected. Verizon requires suppliers not
to use the information for any purpose other than the purpose for which it was originally collected,
protecting the privacy of your information.
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What does Verizon do with non-personally identifiable information collected automatically?
Verizon uses cookies to collect this type of information
in order to enhance your online experience as follows:
• Ensure that you see the correct products and pricing applicable to the state in which you live
• Manage the number of ads that you see to avoid over-delivery of the same message
• Tailor an advertisement to better match your interests and preferences
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What does Verizon do with personally identifiable information?
Personal information you voluntarily supply when obtaining information, purchasing products, or
interacting with our advertising on verizon.com is not shared for non-Verizon purposes.
This information is Verizon proprietary data and is not available for use to any outside company
in this personalized form. Should any changes be made in the way we use personally identifiable
information, Verizon will contact you via email notifying you of this change and give you the
opportunity to choose to opt out of such use.
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Does Verizon use the information provided online to profile its customers?
No. Verizon does not combine offline information about you with the online information that you provide on our Web site.
We have made it a requirement that you will be clearly notified at the time of online data
collection for the purpose of consumer profiling. When your online purchase behavior is intended
to be combined with offline information, this intent will be clearly stated. You will then have
the ability to choose not to have that information combined.
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| Email |
Does this site send email to site visitors?
Verizon strives to continuously improve our customers' online experience by providing them with
the latest information about the benefits of Verizon's products and services and in other
circumstances described below. We may provide this information in any number of ways, including
emails to our customers, online visitors and others who have provided their email addresses to
Verizon. In addition, unless you have chosen to opt out from receiving email messages from Verizon,
Verizon may send emails to:
• Inform customers that their telephone bills are available for review online
• Conduct online surveys
• Provide marketing information about Verizon products and services
• Provide information to those who have voluntarily provided their email addresses to third parties in
order to receive promotional material
Moreover, in the following situations, Verizon reserves the right to communicate through email
with online users, including those who have opted out of receiving solicitation-based emails, to:
• Notify customers about service or product affecting changes
• Respond to an online user's email
• Confirm transactions, orders, payments and registrations placed online
• Send information that a customer or potential customer has requested
• Provide emergency, security and online account maintenance information
Verizon supports and complies with all laws governing its email communications and will update
this policy as needed to ensure ongoing compliance.
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| Security Issues |
How does Verizon protect my personal information?
We are committed to protecting the information you give us, so we implement the appropriate
safeguards to do so. Any information that you give us is protected by a password with a minimum
of six characters for added security. Within Verizon, your information is stored in
password-protected, limited-access servers. Wherever possible, Verizon servers reside behind a
corporate firewall that maintains tight controls on any access to the system from both our
internal network and the Internet. Verizon uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to transmit sensitive
information such as credit card numbers and SSN. SSL is a transport level technology for
authentication and data encryption between a Web server and a Web browser. SSL sends data
over the "socket" which is a secure channel at the connection layer.
Does Verizon's Web site collect information from children?
Verizon believes that protecting the privacy of children on the Internet is very important.
The Verizon Web site is not designed to attract children under the age of 13, and we do not
intentionally collect personal information from children on our Web sites. Ordering online
products and services is limited to adults 18 or over.
Children should exercise caution before providing personal information online and should discuss
with an adult or guardian before doing so. Verizon also urges parents and guardians to consider
using one of the low-cost software programs designed to protect children while they are online.
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| Cookies |
What are cookies and why does Verizon use them?
A cookie is a small data string our server writes to your hard drive. This data string contains
your unique user ID for our Web site. This technology also allows us to customize your experiences
when you visit the Verizon Web site. For example, we're able to deliver content specific to your
interests, keep track of your online ordering and alert you to new products or money saving
opportunities based on your current services.
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What information is collected by the site or in cookies?
Verizon collects non-personally identifiable information regarding your visit, usually in the form
of cookies, log files, or clear .gif files. Cookies contain a session identification number that
our systems use to recall previous authentication or order information from our servers. We may
also collect your domain name, IP address, the address of the last URL you visited prior to coming
to our Web site, and your browser and platform type. We use third party tracking services to help
us analyze this information in the aggregate to evaluate the effectiveness of our site. In some
cases, the information is collected directly by the third party and in others it is forwarded by
Verizon to the third party. The third party is not permitted to use the information for any other purpose.
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How do I disable cookies on my browser?
It's important you know that a cookie cannot be used to access or otherwise compromise the data
on your hard drive. Your privacy is always protected. However, at any time you may choose to
change your browser settings to disable cookies if you do not want us to establish and maintain a
unique verizon.com user ID for you. Please be aware that cookies may be required to complete
certain functions on this Web site, such as ordering online. We've made it easy for you to remove
cookies from your browser. Simply choose from the list below and click on the name of the browser
you use to access the Internet to find instructions.
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| Online Advertising |
What is Verizon's position regarding online advertising and third-party ad servers?
As an online advertiser, Verizon uses information supplied from third-party companies in several
ways. This is aggregated data that does not personally identify any individual online user.
This data is used to:
• Evaluate and prioritize site selection when developing online media plans
• Geographically target advertising
• Deliver product and pricing information applicable to the customer's state
• Gauge the effectiveness of our online advertising
Again, personally identifiable information such as name, address, phone number, or email address
is not collected unless you voluntarily supply this data to Verizon or to a third party partner in
order to get further information about Verizon products and services.
In addition, some Verizon Web sites -- for example,
www.SuperPages.com
-- may accept advertisements from third-party advertisers. These advertisers are carefully selected to
provide information about products and services that we think may benefit you. Please check the privacy
policy of these Web sites concerning what information may be collected by third-party advertisers.
Third-party advertising companies may also utilize technology in order to measure the effectiveness
of ads. Some Verizon Web pages contain clear .gif files (also known as Web beacons), electronic
images that allow the third party to collect anonymous information. This anonymous information
about your visits to our site is used to provide advertisements about goods and services of
potential interest to you. No personally identifiable information is collected during this process.
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Whom do I contact if I am concerned, or have questions, about my Privacy at Verizon?
Please visit Contact Us.
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Updated January 2006
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