Roger Fingas
U.S. carrier Verizon is offering people in its new Up rewards program discounts on Apple Music — with the tradeoff of handing over personal tracking data.
For every $300 spent at Verizon, the carrier is giving Up members a credit that can be used to claim a reward. This includes four months of Apple Music for new subscribers, or a single month for existing customers.
Some other potential rewards include charity donations, financial credit with Verizon, discounts on third-party brands like Amazon, JetBlue, and HBO Now, and tickets to events such as concerts, Broadway shows, and the Super Bowl. Credits expire after 60 days, and rewards have their own expirations.
Up members must however be a part of Verizon's frequently criticized Selects marketing program — which tracks people using ad and device identifiers, as well as their app and browser histories.
A number of other carriers have used Apple Music as a way of pulling in subscribers. Other examples include Australia's Telstra, Germany's T-Mobile, and EE in the U.K., which even recently extended its promotion to more people.
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4 Comments
Verizon/AOL/Yahoo is a cesspool of ad tracking and re-targeting. Avoid at all costs
Allow tracking of such personal information for something worth 10 dollars?! I don't think so. Verizon may have the best coverage, but, they are dirty.
Apple does some user tracking but right now, I'd take Apple as my cellular service provider, internet provider and even bank over just about any other company on the market. Of course, all the regulatory agencies will never approve any of this for Apple even though they continue to allow companies like Comcast to buy up media providers and even allow them to create their own MVNO agreement with Verizon. What's the difference if Apple were allowed to do this? It's almost like the large cable and cellular companies are entering into (or always have been) a cartel. Of course none of them will say they're involved in price fixing but apparent costs don't include any of the hidden costs of selling your personal information to the highest bidder.