Dear Friends,

Today’s Topic: Verizon Wireless wants to share your CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information). You have the right to opt out!!

I came across this information yesterday and thought it would be especially relevant for sharing, since such a large percentage of you are Verizon Wireless customers. Cell phone and land line phone companies are allowed to share your call records. They can even sell this data to interested third parties. In the past, you may have received notices from other companies you do business with about CPNI sharing. By law they had to give you an opportunity to “opt out.”

Those notices were trashed long ago, right? I can’t help you there, but I do urge you to contact your banks, credit card companies, telephone and other service providers to ask them if they share CPNI and what the procedure is for opting out.

Verizon Wireless just notified customers of this (primarily by mail) recently. I opted out of the sharing yesterday for all 4 of my VZW lines. You can do the same by calling 1-800-333-9956. You will be asked for your cell phone #, your zip code, and the last 4 digits of your SSN or TIN – for business accounts. After you go through those steps, opting out for other lines on your account is very simple.

In closing I think the way that CPNI sharing is being handled, even by reputable companies, is disgusting. They are required by law “to ask for our permission.” If lawmakers were serious about our privacy, we would be given the chance to opt in….not opt out!

Yours truly,

Kevin