Verizon

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Verizon Communications, Inc. is a major American telecommunications company headquartered in New York, New York. Verizon is the second-largest telecommunications company in the world by revenue and has the largest wireless network in the United States with 146 million subscribers as of December 31, 2024.

Verizon

Basic information
Founded	1983
Type	Public
Industry	Telecommuncations
Official website	https://verizon.com/

In 2017, the Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded Verizon with a 1 out of 5 stars privacy rating, the same as Verizon's largest competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile.

Incidents

Supercookie insertion (2012-2015)

Verizon Wireless was caught inserting customer- or device-unique cookies into HTTP requests starting in 2012

Selling Consumer Data (2024)

FCC found that all major telecommunications companies were illegally selling customer's location data. FCC fined AT&T $57 million, Sprint $12 million, T-Mobile $80 million, and Verizon $46 million amounting to nearly $200 million.

This fine towards Verizon amounted to about 0.25% of their annual net income.

Deceptive Advertising of 5G (2020)

In March 2019 the Better Business Bureau cited that Verizon was falsely conveying that the 5G technology was currently available to customers. In May 2020 the Better Business Bureau criticized Verizon for claiming it was "building the most powerful 5G experience for America" and recommended that the company disclose the actual availability of its 5G network to its customers.

Lobbying The FCC to Waive Device Unlocking Requirements (2025)

On May 19th, 2025 Verizon submitted a request to have the Federal Trade Commission to remove the current unlocking requirements for consumers who have purchased a device through a telecommunications provider. This requirement is a consumer protection for the device they purchased as after a device has been paid in full and has been active for at least 60 days on the network, the telecommunications provider must allow the device to be unlocked and that device is now free to connect to other carrier networks.

References

Video References:

1. No Escape: EVERY US Carrier Sold Your Location Data with 0.02% Penalties from the FCC!