Stop Carrier from Collecting Data: Protect Your Privacy

Stop carrier from collecting data? Signed up with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile recently? You handed over way more than you bargained for. Sure, the basics make sense—Social Security numbers, addresses, billing information. But here’s the kicker: your carrier is also tracking your web browsing habits, pinpointing your location, and mining details about how you use your phone. They claim they don’t peek at this data directly, but it’s being packaged into advertising profiles that follow you around the internet.

And it doesn’t stay in-house. All three major carriers pass your personal information to third parties—sometimes for a profit—feeding the targeted advertising machine and credit reporting agencies. Given the parade of data breaches these companies have suffered lately, you’d be justified in feeling squeamish about giving them more ammunition.

Here’s the silver lining: you can stop carrier from collecting data beyond what’s necessary. Federal regulations force carriers to offer opt-out options for specific data practices, and each major carrier provides privacy controls, though they’re far from uniform.

The problem? Carriers aren’t obligated to advertise these settings. Worse yet, many come switched on right out of the gate. If privacy matters to you, make it a habit to dig through your provider’s security settings periodically. Let’s break down what each carrier offers and how to stop carrier from collecting data you don’t want them to have.

How to Stop T-Mobile from Collecting Data

Log into your account through their website or the T Life app. Click My Account in the top right, then navigate to Profile. Here are the key toggles worth knowing about:

Analytics and reporting: T-Mobile tracks which apps you use, where you go, your age bracket, and gender to build marketing reports shared with external companies.

Sharing certain financial information: This green-lights T-Mobile to pass your data to financial institutions for co-marketing opportunities and assessing your credit profile.

Advertising options: Your app downloads and usage get collected for personalized advertising, mixed with location and demographic details. Flipping this off won’t eliminate ads—just the personalization.

Profiling and automated decisions: This one’s troubling. T-Mobile collects personal data to “evaluate, analyze, or predict certain personal aspects about your performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements.” At minimum, shut this down—it’s disturbingly vague and sweeping.

Do not sell or share my personal information: Determines whether T-Mobile can distribute or monetize your data with outside companies.

My recommendation? Disable everything except Fraud and Identity Theft Protection to effectively stop carrier from collecting data you’re uncomfortable sharing.

How to Stop Verizon from Collecting Data

Go to Account, then Account Overview on the website or app. Select profile and settings, followed by manage privacy settings:

Customer Proprietary Network Information: Controls whether Verizon can leverage what it knows about you to push additional services beyond your current plan.

Business and Marketing Insights: Verizon collects aggregated data about your browsing, app usage, location, and demographics, then combines it with information from external sources to develop “insights” about consumer patterns.

Custom Experience: When enabled, Verizon monitors websites you visit and apps you use to build a profile of your interests.

Custom Experience Plus: This merges all the data above, giving Verizon complete freedom to personalize marketing messages and product suggestions.

Watch out: changing one setting might automatically affect others. Double-check your selections after making adjustments to properly stop carrier from collecting data across all categories.

How to Stop AT&T from Collecting Data

Log into your AT&T account online or through the app, then head to Profile > Privacy Choices:

Personalized: This allows the use of your data for automated decision making, including AI-generated marketing and customized advertisements.

Personalized Plus: AT&T uses data like web browsing and precise location for customization in offers and ads. They clarify this doesn’t give them access to your texts, emails, or call content.

Identity Verification: AT&T collaborates with third parties for identity verification and fraud prevention. This one’s reasonably innocuous and potentially useful to keep active.

Share or sell my personal information: This permits AT&T to distribute or sell limited personal information used to deliver, measure, and create targeted advertising.

What About Prepaid Carriers?

Using a prepaid carrier instead of the big three? They share limited information too. You can stop carrier from collecting data on prepaid services as well. The exact process varies by provider, but you’ll typically find privacy controls in your account settings. Can’t locate the specifics? Call customer service—they’ll point you where you need to go.

Taking these steps to stop carrier from collecting data puts you back in the driver’s seat. Check your settings regularly, as carriers often introduce new da