Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
If you’re a Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile customer, you might be surprised by how much information you agree to share with your provider the moment you sign up. Some of this is expected, such as your Social Security number, home address, and payment details. Beyond that, carriers also enable settings that allow them to collect data from your web browsing, location, and more. While they do not directly access this information themselves, it is used to build advertising profiles and personalize your experience.
It is also not just for internal use. The big three carriers share, and in some cases sell, personal information to other companies for targeted ads or credit checks. When you consider the steady stream of high-profile security breaches carriers have faced in recent years, it is understandable if the idea of handing over even more data makes you uneasy.
How important is data privacy to you, especially when it comes to carriers and ISPs? 6 votes Very important, which is why I use a VPN. 67 % Important, but I don't mind sharing some things as long as its highly anonymized. 33 % I don't care what they do with my data if it means ads that actually fit my interests. 0 %
The good news is that you do have some control. By law, carriers must provide opt-outs for certain types of data sharing, such as T-Mobile’s recently introduced “sharing certain financial information” toggle. Every major US carrier offers at least some form of opt-out program, though the options vary.
The catch is that carriers are not required to proactively tell you about these settings. Even worse, some of these settings are turned on by default, though thankfully not all of them. Nonetheless, if you care about your data privacy, it is worth checking your provider’s privacy and security menus regularly to see what is new and what you can disable. With that in mind, let’s walk through each carrier’s settings and explain what they mean and how to turn them off if you prefer.
T-Mobile
Joe Maring / Android Authority
To access T-Mobile’s Privacy Center, you’ll want to log in to your T-Mobile account via the website or the T Life app. From there, you’ll go to My Account in the upper right corner, followed by Profile.
Once you get there, you’ll see a number of different toggles covering the following: Share data for public and scientific research : Shares anonymized location, demographic, and usage data with researchers for public studies (not law enforcement). This setting rolled out during the pandemic. It’s fairly benign, but some users may still prefer not to share this data.
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