In a privacy policy update, T-Mobile says it will automatically enroll all subscribers in an ad program informed by their online activity, starting on April 26
Wireless carrier tells subscribers it could share their browsing, app data and other online activity with advertisers unless they opt out
Wall Street JournalDrew FitzGerald
Context & Ripple Effects
T-Mobile’s policy change puts its subscriber data into the same carrier-advertising arc later visible in opt-out data programs across all three national carriers. It also sits uneasily beside the carriers’ prior commitment to stop third-party location-data sales, distinguishing advertising use of online activity from that earlier location-sharing practice.
The move created a foundation for T-Mobile’s later App Insights targeting product, which lets marketers use app-install and engagement patterns. The consequential shift is not merely data collection, but a carrier building a marketable audience product from it.
First-order effects
T-Mobile subscribers are enrolled by default unless they opt out, making browsing, app, and other online-activity data available for the carrier’s advertising program.
Advertisers gain access to a T-Mobile-defined audience signal, while subscribers bear the burden of changing the default privacy setting.
Second-order effects
Verizon and AT&T face pressure to make their own opt-out data programs more useful to marketers, intensifying competition over carrier-held customer data rather than network service alone.
If default enrollment becomes the carrier norm, wireless advertising will increasingly depend on consent design and the practical ease of opting out, rather than on customers actively volunteering data.
The model sharpens the policy divide with the FCC’s earlier proposed opt-in standard for sensitive browsing data, making privacy rules central to how carriers monetize subscriber information.
The trend: US wireless carriers are moving toward opt-out, data-driven advertising programs that convert subscriber activity into a competitive marketing asset.
T-Mobile will tell advertisers how you use the web starting next month T-Mobile next month will start a new program that gives customers' web-browsing and device-usage data to advertisers unless customers opt out of the data sharing https://arstechnica.com/...
Carrier selling your web data usage shouldn't be a thing 😡 https://arstechnica.com/... But if you want to limit the impact this have on you, check out our guides on how to disable/renew your advertising ID on your phone 👇
“We've heard many say they prefer more relevant ads so we're defaulting to this setting,” she said. I hear this claim constantly but have seen little evidence to support it, can anyone in #adtech twitter please point me to resources? https://twitter.com/...
I'd have been disappointed if it was any less blatant😂 “T-Mobile will sell your web-usage data to advertisers unless you opt out” https://arstechnica.com/... https://twitter.com/...
This is for T-Mobile customers - the “Un-carrier” has set ad-targeting data collection to ON by default. You can turn it off in the @tmobile app and website. Story has instructions for other carriers. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
If you use T-Mobile read this article, they are now auto enrolling customers into an advertising program and sharing web and mobile app data with advertisers. Bottom of the article explains how to opt out https://www.wsj.com/...
This is just unacceptable. Folks in the US should say NO. LOUDLY. Staring 26 April, @TMobile will start a new program that gives customers' web-browsing and device-usage data to advertisers unless customers opt out of the data sharing" https://arstechnica.com/...
I seem to recall some discussion a few years ago that suggested that this sort of thing might violate the Wiretap Act. Law profs? https://twitter.com/...
T-Mobile, the No. 2 U.S. carrier by subscribers, told users that unless they opt out it will share their web and mobile-app data with advertisers starting April 26 https://www.wsj.com/...