MetaFilter posts tagged with Verizon

Is this a new law?

subdee — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 14:08:36 -0800

New anti-piracy system will hit U.S. Internet users next week. And here's a primer on the Copyright Alerts System (CAS) or six strikes system, also from the Daily Dot.

But not browsing MetaFilter

Wordshore — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 08:30:13 -0800

(BBC) A security check on a US company has reportedly revealed one of its staff was outsourcing his work to China. "The software developer, in his 40s, is thought to have spent his workdays surfing the web, watching cat videos on YouTube and browsing Reddit and eBay. He reportedly paid just a fifth of his six-figure salary to a company based in Shenyang to do his job." The Register gives a timetable of "Bob's" day, while geek.com has more details. v3 reports that: "The developer in question had quarter after quarter been rated as the best in the firm..." ...while Tim Stanley in the Daily Telegraph opinions that "This is capitalism at its best".

Verizon: Can you track me now?

jaduncan — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:49:09 -0800

Verizon draws fire for monitoring app usage, browsing habits: Verizon Wireless has begun selling information about its customers' geographical locations, app usage, and Web browsing activities. The company this month began offering reports to marketers showing what Verizon subscribers are doing on their phones and other mobile devices, including what iOS and Android apps are in use in which locations. Verizon says it may link the data to third-party databases with information about customers' gender, age, and even details such as "sports enthusiast, frequent diner or pet owner." The data is gathered at the point of usage, and there's a noticible difference between the broadly written permission to gather the data and the privacy policy stating it will be anonymised before being shared with third parties. That gap indicates that Verizon probably associates it with their customers' personal data internally. Verizon customers have the option to turn the data gathering off for the first 30 days of the contract only; if this is you, you might wish to go here to opt out.

Wirele$$tap

indubitable — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:14:57 -0800

These Are The Prices AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Charge For Cellphone Wiretaps. After a flurry of public records requests to over 200 police departments, the ACLU has obtained a trove of documents detailing police tracking of cell phone location, call logs and more, including a price list for subscriber information from every major US carrier. T-Mobile declined to comment, and an AT&T spokesperson referred me to the company’s privacy policy, pointing out a specific line that reads, “We do not sell your personal information to anyone for any purpose. Period.” That claim is “simply misleading,” says Catherine Crump, an attorney with the ACLU who coordinated the group’s FOIA project. “That’s a curious definition of ‘sell,’ given that they seem to be charging money for people’s information on a regular basis and handing it over to law enforcement agencies around the country.”

All I want is to be left alone in my average home... But why do I always feel I'm in the twilight zone?

zarq — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:55:49 -0800

In August 2011, 35 ACLU affiliates filed 381 requests in 32 states with local law enforcement agencies seeking to uncover when, why and how they are using cell phone location data to track Americans. So how long do American cell phone carriers retain information about your calls, text messages, and data use? According to data gathered by the US Department of Justice, it can be as little as a few days or up to seven years, depending on your provider. (Via / More)

Oligopolypse Now

cashman — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:04:50 -0800

Even after the Justice Department announced attempts to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, many see a heightened chance of it going through if T-Mobile is weakened. AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile have hired a bunch of former U.S. government officials to try to complete the deal, with Verizon's CEO cheering them on. Yesterday, T-Mobile's CMO Cole Broadman seems to have just blogged a major upcoming weakness - no iPhone 5. Sprint opposes the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, and is tying its fate to being the sole iPhone 5 carrier with unlimited data. Today Apple sent invites out for an event this coming Tuesday where the details of the next iPhone are set to be revealed.

Pay what they want, or don't play (flash games) at all

T.D. Strange — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:20:53 -0800

Everyone take a moment to enjoy the last night of the open internet

"The U.S.A. Is Only A Few Minutes Wide"

zarq — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:10:42 -0800

Wired: "Who 'Ruled the Air' in 1910, and Who Rules It Now?". Also see: Vintage AdBrowser (Previously): Communications Ads of the: 1910's, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

Apple jailbreaks itself

Joe Beese — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:09:38 -0800

Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year, according to people familiar with the matter, ending an exclusive deal with AT&T and sharpening the competition with Google Inc.-based phones. Meanwhile: Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, recently showed up with a small entourage of deputies at Adobe’s offices to hold a secret meeting with Adobe’s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen. The meeting, which lasted over an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could partner in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.

"See no evil, hear no evil..." "Can you hear me now?"

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:43:07 -0800

Despite very strong denials last week from Google and Verizon that they were not discussing ways around Net Neutrality, Google and Verizon held a conference today to announce their agreement to the establishment of price-tiered network services, dividing the current Internet into a "neutral public Internet" that remains "open" (and which preserves access to YouTube and other Google properties), and a set of paid, priority channels that Verizon and other telecoms can use to deliver certain other types of content at higher prices, particularly over cell networks and whatever future infrastructure the Internet will be carried over.

Et Tu Google

Xurando — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:23:18 -0800

Google and Verizon in Talks on Web Priority (nyt) Was the FCC just offering us a Trojan Horse all along?

Tiery-Eyed

Christ, what an asshole — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:03:32 -0800

AT&T Just Killed Unlimited Wireless Data (and Screwed Everybody in the Process) AT&T is likely just the first, since carriers rarely do anything alone (like when everybody launched unlimited voice calling in lockstep), and Verizon's CTO has rumbled that plans with "as much data as you can consume is the big issue that has to change." And so it is.

Can I get a standard pleasure model?

dortmunder — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:39:24 -0800

Google's new phone has raised the ire of Philip K. Dick's Estate. Yesterday Google announced its very own Android phone to compete with the Iphone and presumably with The Verizon Droid and other Android phones. They chose a familiar name for their new Android. You may remember it from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or the movie Blade Runner, where the androids in question were Nexus Sixes. This seeming homage has not endeared Google to the heirs of Phil Dick. Oh, and yes Verizon licensed "Droid," which is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm.

AT&T Network Better Than You Think

Taken Outtacontext — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:15:56 -0800

According to an article in yesterday's NY Times, AT&T's network is much better than our conventional wisdom (or Verizon's marketeers) thought. And, that perhaps the issue with iPhones and coverage is really the fault of the iPhone itself, not AT&T's network.

iDon't

dame — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:24:34 -0800

Verizon takes iPhone head-on. Will Android finally become something to people outside the nerd set? Will all those people still waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon actually buy in? Personally, I'm not giving up my iPhone, but I was amused by the commercial.

The Year of Net Neutrality

spiderwire — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:29:52 -0800

We're only two weeks into the year, but net neutrality issues hit the ground running. The FCC already has three different inquiries open. (also) (previously) The 700 Mhz auction threatens to disrupt an already converging telecom industry. AT&T's post-merger commitment to net neutrality ends this year, and they plan to test the filtering waters, despite recently opposing the practice. And today, a leaked memo revealed that Time Warner will test tiered internet services soon. The Internet as we know it, and communications in general, might be headed for some major changes in 2008.

$0.002 != $0.00002

Drunken_munky — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:44:03 -0800

Math skills are not Verizon's strong point. A man tries to resolve a simple problem with Verizon for 22 minutes. Listen, and despair.

Internet Freedom Under Fire - Act Now

sswiller — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:36:57 -0800

Internet: Freedom or Privilege? David Isenberg: "Just as Freedom of Speech means that, with very few limitations, nobody has the right to tell somebody else what to say, so should Internet freedom mean that gatekeepers should not control Internet applications or content. This is essential not just as a matter of freedom, but also as a matter of commerce, because the Internet’s success is directly due to its content-blindness. If the United States fails to understand this, U.S. Internet leadership will follow U.S. leadership in agriculture, in steel, in autos, and in consumer electronics to other countries that do."

Paternalism gone mad?

essexjan — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 02:35:51 -0800

US ISP Verizon decided late last year to block any email sent from outside the US. I thought the bounces I was getting from my Verizon contacts were glitches until I googled and found this.

The arrogance of Verizon is astonishing: "If it's really important you might want to make a phone call".

Is Traditional Phone Service Doomed?

ParisParamus — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 18:53:46 -0800

Verizon goes Vonage? ATT, announced this week that it's giving up on residential phone service. And here, from the look of it, Verizon is starting to offer what I believe is Internet-based phone service. Is the Internet the future of phone?

Not your fathers POTS phone system goes Voip

thedailygrowl — Thu, 11 Dec 2003 14:12:40 -0800

Its not your fathers P.O.T.S. Plain Old Telephone Service is undergoing a fundamental shift as companies such as Verizon, AT&T and British Telecom embrace Internet technology to route long-distance and local phone calls to compete with services from the likes of upstarts Vonage and Packet8 and Skype etc. Is this the beginning of the Telepocalypse a race to the bottom of less and less profit and more and more layoffs? Follow the history and future of the woeful crumbling of the hiearchical phone phone company at David Isen's web page Are the guts of the phone companies the class 5 switch go the way of mainframe computer

RIAA: Stop, or we will sue

FearTormento — Wed, 25 Jun 2003 14:51:32 -0800

RIAA: Stop, or we will sue fresh from its victory against Verizon, the RIAA gears up to go head to head with individual users of P2P. Run and hide!

Told Ya!

BGM — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 17:18:42 -0800

Verizon Must Reveal Internet Song Swapper In a recent discussion of the Supreme Court's decision to protect the rights of the individual from the greed and sloth of the many I warned that the RIAA and MPAA, comically inept though the media paints them, would soon have things their way. This link is to a news report about an important step in their fight for individual rights.

Finally, a Fair Fight with Big Music

fpatrick — Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:17:25 -0800

Finally, a Fair Fight with Big Music From a Business Week Online column..."Telecom giant Verizon is battling the industry's bid to make it name a file-sharing subscriber. It's also defending your right to privacy. On July 24, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) made an unprecedented request of Verizon Communications (VZ). The music industry's trade association served the telecom with a subpoena, seeking the identity of a Verizon subscriber who had allegedly illegally traded digital songs by artists including Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and "boy band" N'Sync. The RIAA didn't specify why it wanted to know who the user was or what it would do with the information."

edlundart — Mon, 20 May 2002 21:04:36 -0800

Imagine you are moving between apartments. Check out this Verizon "How do I..." page. Over 40 questions are answered, but the 2nd most obvious question one might have is strangely absent. Then try to order a basic cable service from Time Warner Cable. Do you have other examples of corporate sites that are less than helpful when what you want is less than what they would like to sell - or when you want to cancel?