In a very non-Uncarrier move, it’s been detailed this week that T-Mobile will soon start “sharing” your device’s usage information with advertisers beginning next month. The information collected includes data about your web browsing and phone usage, all to be bundled up and sold to make a profit.
Set to go live on April 26, this policy aligns with what we see from other carriers like AT&T and Verizon. For those who don’t know how this process works, the carriers collect relevant data to determine a users’ interests, scrub any sort of personal information, and then ensure the data doesn’t belong to a device used by a child. That data is then used by advertisers to help show you interesting ads.
Thankfully, T-Mobile is providing customers the ability to opt-out of this data collection. To opt out, you’ll need to follow this link to access you T-Mobile account’s privacy settings. All customers are automatically opted in, so unless you manually opt-out, they will collect your data.
I’m actually shocked this wasn’t already happening. Personally, I’d gladly hand over some data if it meant I could get a bill credit or monthly refund of some kind. You know, it’s my data, so where’s my cut?