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Verizon Online - Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy

Verizon respects your right to privacy. We adhere to a set of privacy principles which form the basis of our privacy policy. When you visit this site you may provide information on two different levels about your visit:

  • Anonymous statistics collected as you browse the site, and
  • Personal information you knowingly give us.
We want you to be aware of what information we collect, and how we handle this information.

Reviewed by Trust-e - Click to verify

What it means to me for Verizon to be a TRUSTe licensee?

This confirms that Verizon is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. 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. Because this web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

When you visit a web site displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, you can expect to be notified regarding:

  • What identifiable information is collected about you
  • What organization is collecting the information
  • How the information is used
  • With whom the information may be shared
  • What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
  • What kind of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under the company's control, and
  • How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact us. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve your concerns.

What information does the Web site gather?

Please be assured that we do not collect personal information from you unless you provide it to us. This means that you can visit our Web sites without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself (such as your e-mail address, software you are using, or any information about yourself).

As you browse the site, our web servers collect information about your visit, not about you personally. Via web server logs, we monitor statistics such as:

  • How many people visit our site
  • Which pages people visit on our site
  • From which domains our visitors come (e.g., aol.com)
  • Which browsers people use to visit our site
None of this information is associated with you as an individual (see information about cookies. We use these statistics to improve our Web site, to monitor its performance, and to make the Web site easier for you and other visitors to use.

  • What about pages that asks for personal information?
  • When visitors supply information about themselves for a specific purpose, we use the information for that purpose (such as to provide the service or information the visitor has requested).
For example, you may be asked to give us individual information to purchase a product or service, receive information, manage online account registration, or apply for a job. The information may range from your zip code, to your phone number, account number, a credit card number, age, gender, mother's maiden name, social security number, e-mail address, organization URL, resume, or mailing address.

When visitors use our Web site to order services, we may use this individually identifiable information as we would use the same information obtained in a traditional non-electronic manner. For example, to publish your name, address, and phone number in our directories (unless you have requested a non-published number), or to evaluate your service needs and contact you regarding additional services you may find useful.

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 to give you the opportunity to choose to opt-out of such use.

Network Performance and Your Internet Connection

Verizon automatically measures and monitors network performance and the performance of your Internet connection in order to improve the level of your service. Verizon also will access information about your computer's settings in order to provide customized technical support. You can be assured that no adjustments to your computer settings will be made without your permission, which you give at the time that the adjustments are being made, and which you can revoke at any time. Verizon does not share information collected for the purpose of network or computer performance monitoring or for providing customized technical support outside of Verizon or its authorized vendors, contractors and agents.

What happens to information when I fill out registration forms?

We encourage all visitors to register with us, although registration is only required for certain transaction-related areas of Verizon.com or other Verizon or co-branded sites. The registration forms request accurate contact information (like name and e-mail address) and preferences that help us better serve you. Your name and e-mail address are used to send you information about our company, product updates, special offers, and newsletters. You may change your email, user ID or password online; or you can choose to remove your name from our user list by going to contact us and emailing us a request to remove your name from the online billing application.

For our local phone service customers, you may also be given the option of registering a profile with us (limited to specific areas). This would store your name, purchase history, and billing information to make it easier for you to shop and purchase products/services from us in the future. You may opt out of this feature at any time by either going to contact us and emailing us your request, or in some applications you can cancel/change your profile within the application itself.

We strive to ensure that the information we obtain and use about customers is accurate. Please contact us to review or modify any personal information we have previously collected from you online or if you find an error in your bill. Customers have access to their account information via our monthly bills. To improve the services we can offer you, we may decide to expand the site's capabilities for obtaining information about users in the future. We will update this privacy statement continually to ensure that you are aware of developments in this area.

Do you sell or give my information to non-Verizon companies, other third parties or governmental entities?

Verizon does not sell or disclose individually-identifiable information obtained online, or information about you or your account or service, to anyone outside of Verizon or its authorized vendors, contractors and agents unless you specifically authorize it, disclosure is required by law, or deemed necessary by Verizon in its sole discretion to protect the safety, rights or property of Verizon or any other person or entity. If you provide individually identifiable information to us in the context of an event Verizon sponsors with another company, such as a contest, or if you register on a co-sponsored site or feature, you may also be providing the individually identifiable information to the co-sponsor. For example, on Verizon co-branded sites, our partner will generally co-own the customer information received through the site. How the partner uses this information will be explained in the privacy statement at the co-branded site, which will govern the use of data gathered through the co-branded site.

Verizon may share 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.

Use of Microsoft® .NET Passport

Verizon Online uses .NET Passport to provide certain registration and sign-in services. To learn more about the Passport service, the information stored in the Passport profile, and how Passport uses and protects your personal information, please read the .NET Passport Privacy Statement.

Does this site send e-mail to site visitors?

At times, online surveys are conducted in which you can choose to participate. In addition, we may use e-mail to communicate with our customers, to respond to visitors' e-mail, to confirm orders placed online, and to send information that a visitor has requested. Occasionally, we may use opt-in e-mail lists from third parties to promote our latest specials. If you receive an unwanted e-mail from us, you can use the Reply feature on your browser and simply ask us to remove you from our list.

What are cookies and why do you use them?

A cookie is a small, encrypted data string our server writes to your hard drive that contains your unique User ID for our Web site. We use cookies to deliver web content specific to your interests, to keep track of your order as you order services, and to control access to our premium content. A cookie cannot be used to access or otherwise compromise the data on your hard drive. You can choose to change your browser settings to disable cookies if you do not want us to establish and maintain a unique Verizon.net User ID. Please be aware that cookies may be required to complete certain functions on this Web site, such as ordering in our online store. To disable cookies, click here.

Do you accommodate links to other sites?

This Web site contains links to other Web sites. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. We are committed to safeguarding customer privacy on all our Web sites. We require our employees to protect the privacy of information about our customers and expect our partners and suppliers to do so as well. You can feel confident that your individually identifiable information will be protected when you access your account or order services from us over the Internet.

What is Verizon's position regarding online advertising and third party ad servers?

As part of the online advertising process, we use information supplied from third party companies in several ways however, this is aggregated data and does not personally identify any individual online user.
This data is used to:

  • gain a better understanding of the type of individuals viewing or visiting different web sites,
  • evaluate and prioritize site selection when developing online media plans,
  • geographically target advertising,
  • deliver product and pricing advertising/information applicable to the customers' state, and gauge the effectiveness of our online advertising.
Personally identifiable information such as name, address, phone number or email address is not collected.

In addition, some Verizon websites may accept advertisements from third party advertisers. These advertisers are carefully selected to provide information about products and services that we think may benefit Verizon customers. These third party advertisers may collect non-personally identifiable information about users of this website for the same reasons listed above, but personally identifiable information is not collected. Verizon does not have control of nor access to any information contained in the cookies that are set by third party advertisers.

Non Personally Identifiable Information Collected Automatically

Cookies help Verizon to enhance the user's online experience and are used to:

  • deliver the appropriate geographic message
  • manage frequency of ad exposure; avoid over delivery of the same message
  • tailor an advertisement to better match your interests and preferences
  • ensure that you see the correct products and pricing applicable to the state in which you live
  • understand advertising effectiveness
However, customers are free to delete website cookies. Most internet browsers enable you to erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. To disable cookies, click here.

However, you need to understand that some websites/adserving companies have the ability to reestablish your history even after cookie deletion, if you reenter the same site on another occasion, or some other site tracked by the adserving company/network, and specifically provide personal data.

Deletion of cookies alone does not prevent adserving companies from reestablishing history on a visitor. The visitor must either continue to decline cookies each time it reenters the site to keep the tracking severed, if desired, or opt-out. When you opt-out, your unique user ID cookie is erased and you are reassigned an anonymous, non-id cookie. This new cookie tells websites that you have opted out and they will then know not to attempt to assign other cookies to you in the future. Opt-out cookies do not contain a unique user ID number therefore websites are not able to identify your computer uniquely.

Customers who choose to continually delete cookies and not opt out can have their browser advise them each time a web site attempts to send a cookie to your system. At that time, you can choose to either Accept or Cancel a cookie.

Customers who choose to "opt out" after deleting cookies will receive an anonymous/non personally identifiable cookie.

Personally Identifiable Information

Personally identifiable information voluntarily supplied by our customers or our visitors, i.) who receive or provide information on our website, or ii). who purchase Verizon Online products on our website, or iii). who interact with our banners/advertising on outside websites, is not shared for use outside Verizon or its authorized vendors, contractors and agents. This information is Verizon proprietary data and is not available to any outside company in this personalized form, except with a customer's or visitor's permission or where disclosure is otherwise required or permitted by law. No outside company is allowed access to this information.

For example, if you provide us with information (such as phone number or email address) and ask to be contacted when DSL is available in your area, we will notify you when DSL is available; or, if you enter such information online and qualify for DSL service, we may contact you to provide additional information and to follow up on your inquiry. If you are contacted by telephone as a follow up to your inquiry, you may request to be removed from our calling list at that time. We will not use this information for any other reason nor will we share it with any outside company.

Should any changes be made in the way we use personally identifiable information, Verizon will contact you via email, or by other means, notifying you of this change, and give you the opportunity to choose to opt-out of such use.

Protection Of Children's Personal Information

Verizon Services, including Verizon Online services, are not designed to attract children under the age of 13. Although we do feature sites that may be of interest to young viewers, we do not collect personally identifiable information on children. Further, Verizon offers tools for parents to educate young Internet users on safe surfing practices, including filtering tools to help children and parents avoid objectionable content online. GetNetWise.org and SafeKids.com are two sites that offer tools for providing information on safe Internet usage. For more information, go to the "Family Online Safety Guide" on our homepage.

Does Verizon use the information provided online to profile its customers?

The combination of offline and online information provided by the customer has the ability to enhance the customer experience, and make the consumer's interaction with Verizon more meaningful and relevant. Verizon requires notification of any consumer profiling or purchasing behavior being captured by Verizon Online and combined with offline information be clearly stated to the consumer at the time of online data collection. The consumer will have the ability to choose not to have that information aggregated and be part of subsequent marketing campaigns by choosing to be identified within the application.

Please note

We may disclose personal information when required by law or when necessary to protect the safety of our customers, employees or property.

SECURITY ISSUES

How do I know I am on a secured site?

Every secure page on our Web sites has been secured with a digital certificate by Verisign. To view this certificate, click on image of the closed lock on the bottom bar of your browser window. This certificate will show that you are sending your personal information to Verizon.

How does Verizon prevent unauthorized access to my information?

Your password is set at a minimum of six characters, which provides added protection for your personal information. On secured pages, this site uses SSL encryption up to 128-bits.

Information that you share about yourself in chat rooms, message boards, instant messaging communications and similar forums becomes immediately available to others who have access to those fora. These areas are considered public spaces and Verizon Online cannot protect the privacy of information disclosed therein. Please exercise caution when disclosing personal information in theses areas.

What information is stored by the site or in cookies?

Registration information, bill and online shopping, data and contact e-mail addresses are not stored by the Verizon site. They are stored in the Verizon databases, physically secure environments that are not accessible via the Internet. This information is only available to you through the use of a secure ID and password, and the information is transferred from our databases for your viewing.

A cookie is a small, encrypted data string our server writes to your hard drive that contains your unique User ID for our Website. Cookies help us to identify returning visitor's to our websites, which allow us to give you a more personalized, useful experience on our website. We use cookies to deliver web content specific to your interests, to keep track of your order as you order services, and to control access to our premium content. A cookie cannot be used to access or otherwise compromise the data on your hard drive. You can 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. Please be aware that cookies may be required to complete certain functions on this Web site, such as ordering in our online store. To disable cookies, see next section.

Here is How to Set Your Cookie Preferences:

  • Netscape Navigator 3.x: In the Options menu, select Network Preferences. In Network Preferences, click on the Protocols tab and there you may choose to be warned before accepting cookies.
  • Netscape Navigator 4.x: In the Edit menu, select Preferences. In the Preferences dialog box, in the left hand side menu, click on 'Advanced' and 4 options concerning cookies will appear on the lower right. Choose Help for further details. You can find more information about cookies and Netscape on the Netscape Web site.
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x: In the view menu, select Options. Click on the Advanced tab. You may choose to be warned before accepting cookies.
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x: In the view menu, select Options. Click on the Advanced tab and scroll down to a yellow triangle icon with an exclamation point labeled 'Cookies' where you have 3 options.
  • Other Browsers: Contact the manufacturer of the browser for information.

Changes to this Policy

Please check this privacy policy periodically to inform yourself of any changes. Although we reserve the right to modify or supplement this privacy policy, we will provide notice to you on this Web site of any major material changes and those changes are effective upon posting unless otherwise noted.

(Updated May, 2003)