With great fanfare, Verizon Wireless launched its new reward program last week called Verizon Smart Rewards.
You collect points for signing up, for being a loyal customer, for amounts paid on your bill, for signing up for paperless billing, etc. And those points can be used for discounts on meals, merchandise, gift cards, entertainment and more.
This is what the homepage for Smart Rewards looks like at launch:
It explains how the program works: you sign up, your earn points, and you redeem rewards. Simple. Oh, they left out just one thing. See that sentence at the bottom that we outlined in yellow?
*MOUSE PRINT:
May require enrollment in Verizon Selects, which delivers more relevant advertising using anonymized information about customer use of Verizon products and services, interests and demographics.
You have to enroll in some advertising program called Verizon Selects? Huh?
Well, delivering relevant advertising is the result of the program. What you really are agreeing to is to allow the company to observe your Internet surfing habits on your smartphone, where you shop, what apps you use, what your location is, where and whom you call, and more. In essence, in return for getting rewards, you are allowing Verizon to track you.
But it doesn’t say that there. What a silly (or very deliberate) omission. And when you go to the registration page, all the introduction says is:
Verizon Selects personalizes the content and marketing you may receive from Verizon and other selected companies.
Still, you have not been informed what this Verizon Selects thing really is. It tells you the result of their tracking — getting more relevant advertising — not that it is a program to track you. Only when you scroll down to the terms and conditions agreement section, do they spring it on you, and ask you to agree to it.
*MOUSE PRINT:
[size reduced to fit space]
It seems to us that Verizon should be upfront about the precondition that you must agree to be tracked in order to sign up for the rewards programs, and clearly disclose that on the first page of the offer.
Customers will have to decide whether they think the rewards they are offering are worth allowing the company to track your smartphone usage. Incidentally, Verizon tells us that once you sign up for the rewards program and the tracking program, you can cancel the tracking part and still keep earning rewards.
Note: Edgar Dworsky is a member of Verizon’s Consumer Advisory Board.
