Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all have programs that collect additional customer data, like app usage and web history, and they are generally opt-out
Verizon says it's to better “understand your interests” — The My Verizon app might be collecting information about your browsing history …
Context & Ripple Effects
Verizon has repeatedly paired expanded data access with user-choice mechanisms, from the 2015 supercookie opt-out to a rewards program tied to broader personal-data sharing. T-Mobile’s automatic enrollment in an activity-informed ad program shows the same default-on approach had spread across major US carriers by 2021.
The current scrutiny matters because app usage and web-history collection is no longer framed as a single Verizon tracking mechanism; Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile each place the burden on subscribers to opt out.
First-order effects
- Subscribers of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile who do not opt out remain eligible for programs using app-usage and web-browsing signals, while Verizon positions that collection as a way to understand customer interests.
- The carriers’ privacy controls become an immediate customer-service and trust issue, since participation depends on users finding and exercising an opt-out.
Second-order effects
- Behavioral data gathered through these programs strengthens the inputs available to carrier advertising efforts; Verizon had previously linked its tracking identifiers to AOL’s ad network to connect online habits with personal details.
- Because all three national carriers use opt-out structures, privacy defaults become a point on which they can be compared rather than a feature one carrier can avoid addressing.
Third-order effects
- If opt-out enrollment persists as the common model, mobile carriers increasingly treat subscriber behavior as a monetizable network-adjacent asset, with meaningful consent determined by product settings rather than an affirmative sign-up.
The trend: US carriers are moving from connectivity-only relationships toward default-enabled collection of behavioral signals for interest-based commercial programs.