Verizon hit with $7.4 MEEELLION fine for slurping users' privates Verizon has agreed to pay the US Treasury $7.4m to settle an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission into its failure to tell customers that it was using their personal information for marketing purposes. "In today's increasingly connected world, it is critical that every phone company honor its duty to inform …
The financial cost is not high for them, as you point out, but management have very publicly been found to be breaching the rights of their customers and admitted their guilt by agreeing to pay the fine. That is still serious.
Verizon is not a company that can just dissolve and come back again under a new brand. They need somehow to make amends. Perhaps it's too much to hope that it won't be by just sweeping it under the carpet...
How about take the fine out of their bonus package?
Diluted over their bonus pool it won't even register.
I hate the BS that accompanies such fines, like "highest ever fine" - as if that matters if you fine them what amounts to a rounding error in their accounts. I'm betting the next company fine will be again be heralded as "highest ever" on account of adding $10 to what Verizon was fined. Enough already - show me evidence that it actually has one iota influence on what they do. With that sort of fine I deem that *very* unlikely.
This is the problem and it is precisely what 'punitive damages' are supposed to address.
Not a lawyer (etc...) but it would seem to me that punitive damages are warranted here, given their purpose in applying them is to ensure that the company is fined enough to be an actual deterrent to them and others. The idea is to make the fine large enough that it cannot just be seen as a 'business cost'.
Settling out of court isn't sending a very strong message to either Verizon or other companies who are either currently engaged in similar behaviour or contemplating it.
@dan1980Settling out of court isn't sending a very strong message to either Verizon or other companies who are either currently engaged in similar behaviour or contemplating it.
As far as I am aware there was no court action, just the FCC investigation and the resulting conclusions which were accepted by Verizon because they paid the fine. That is quite different to settling out of court when a case has been brought.
@brooxta
Thanks for clarifying.
Perhaps that's where the problem lies. Again, without any specific knowledge of the law, it might have been better for the government to bring the action on behalf of the customers, thus opening up the full scope of a court proceeding and the ability to sue for punitive damages.
"What will be the size of the fine leveled on the NSA? Probably enough to pay off the national debt."
No, that would double the national debt as the government would have to borrow to pay the fine. Any money collected for the fine would not go into the government coffers but would be used to keep Joe Biden in naughty nurse outfits...
Besides, the NSA is part of the government itself. They're basically IMMUNE from paying fines because the government holds sovereign power: my government, my rules. And that Cosntitution? Ink on a page...
As for Verizon, they should've been forced to make their policy opt-IN.
A few recent Verizon headlines:
"How Verizon lets its copper network decay to force phone customers onto fiber"
"Verizon caught throttling Netflix traffic even after its pays for more bandwidth"
"Verizon led massive astroturf campaign to end NJ broadband obligation"
"Verizon will miss deadline to wire all of New York City with FiOS"
"Verizon: We throttle unlimited data to provide an “incentive to limit usage""
Why are you in business Verizon? If you hate your customers so much, sell yourself off to smaller, hungrier companies who are EAGER to treat their customers with the RESPECT they deserve.
Why are you in business Verizon?
<snark>
"Verizon is a premier supplier of telecommunications services worldwide to both commercial and residential customers. Verizon takes great pride in supplying the best service it can provide fleecing its customers at every opportunity it recognizes 24/7/365.
Verizon respects the privacy rights of its customers, and it respects ignores the opt-out rights of those customers. In our attempt to provide these outstanding services to our customers, we may from time to time, contact customers with promotional materials detailing our service offerings spam existing and potentially new customers with junk mail detailing the shallow services we provide, and the exorbitant prices we charge for them.
Verizon wants to be your only telecommunications services supplier, and Verizon takes its corporate responsibilities seriously challengers to its monopoly status seriously and Verizon will take those steps necessary utilize any and all means necessary to insure its monopoly status to carry out its mission to provide excellence in customer service increase shareholder value.
</snark>
BTW, the stricken text is likely what you might have heard from the PR droids at Verizon, the emphasized text is more likely the real answer to your question.
Lastly, a simple request, upvote this if you agree. Thanks.
The fuckers probably sold the data for dozens of times the amount fined. The customers data is out there and said customers will keep receiving spam related to this for decades. The bureaucrats responsible for this ridiculous settlement should be hanged from a beam!!!.
They probably made that back in 30 seconds of advertising from their car winning the Indycar Championship on Saturday night! What we need instead are prison sentences and bonus clawbacks. But what's the likelihood of that in a country where the Corporation is King? Especially when the legislators & politicians merely serve as court jesters, with half of them becoming millionaires in the process...
.
.
Half of US Congressional politicians are millionaires:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25691066
US is an oligarchy, not a democracy:
www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
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