Mobile Broadband

[Myrtle]

Hi, in my family we have a total of 4 vodafone accounts, including 2 mobile broadband all in my name. I would like to know a few things. 1. What does vodafone record during an internet session? 2. Who has access to this information. 3. When, if ever, is this information anonymized?

[Bart]

Hi Myrtle,

Apologies for the delayed response, I'm currently looking into the information you've requested and hope to have an answer for you soon. I want to make sure I'm delivering you accurate information and I'll post again once I've got that for you.

Thanks, Bart.

[Tim_H]

Hi Myrtle,

Thanks for your questions. We welcome customers taking an interest in their privacy and we have a detailed privacy policy here. It outlines how and why we collect your personal information, and what we do with it.

More specifically, when using your mobile service we’ll collect some standard information as a part of our network operations and billing. This information includes the mobile base stations in use (location information), the amount of data accessed at a specific time, and can also include the website or IP address of traffic. Information such as website user logins or passwords transmitted via a form are not collected or stored because we’re not viewing the contents of your web traffic, only the destination.

All customer information stored by Vodafone is treated as confidential, and our systems and policies restrict that information to staff requiring to access your account as a part of serving you or providing you with the service. This includes our system requirements to verify your identity via your PIN before your details are viewed or accessed. We further require Vodafone staff only to access relevant information during an enquiry.  This could include viewing your address details when discussing coverage or service availability, but not viewing itemised usage details.

Detailed information on internet traffic is not visible to staff outside senior engineers, but could be anonymously included in reports on types of network traffic or websites in use. There are strict requirements on access to, and use of, this data, just like with your personal information.

If you’ve got any specific concerns around your own privacy, you’re welcome to request a copy of the personal information Vodafone has about you using the form attached to our privacy policy.

Thanks
Tim

[Myrtle]

Thanks for your reply, that is helpful. The last part of my question asked, 'When, if ever, is this information anonymized?' Are you able to answer this?

[Tim_H]

Hi Myrtle,

Your information is included anonymously in any reporting on multiple customers, or anywhere as required by privacy laws. Otherwise, service information will remain attached to our records as long as we maintain them. Our commitment to privacy doesn't alter with the age of data and we maintain the same strict requirements and compliance with our legal obligations for all data we hold.

Thanks

Tim

[Myrtle]

Hi, Thanks again for your reply.

I have no problem with data retention of non-sensitve info, thanks for the info...i would like some clarification on the more sensitive side of things, such as personal browsing history.

I may be misunderstanding you.... but when you say, ' and can also include the website or IP address of traffic'..... and then that there is no period after which this is anonymised...... It sounds to me like you are saying that Vodafone record my personal browsing history indefinitely...but don't worry, only a senior engineer can look at it....

I don't actually have a problem with you recording my browsing history (millions would), besides me assuming it was still illegal to do so...but I think that if you are, you need to provide clear information as to when it will be made anonymous...for example from what you are saying it seems that a senior engineer could in, say 5 years time, access my family's browsing history from, say four years ago.

Then again it is entirely possible and likely that I have misunderstood the meaning of 'website or IP of traffic'.

[Tim_H]

Hi Myrtle,

Thanks for the questions and I'm happy to clarify.

Billing records (how much data was used, and how much was charged etc) are never anonymised. We have a regulatory requirement to maintain the information that we use to bill you for a period of 7 years, and that inclused maintaining whose service we have charged.This is the same records we maintain for a phone call. This is maintained and secured by our internal systems and processes that prevent access to data unless required to maintain your account or provide services.

Data such as websites visited is stored in some network systems for a short period of time (3-4 months) and then deleted. There's no regulatory need to store that specific information, so we delete it which effectively anonymises it (as it doesn't exist anymore). Your web browsing history is not available for staff to view or access.

We'll always keep your billing records in case you need old invoices etc (we've had customers with us for decades) but the specific information your talking about isn't stored for very long, and when it is it's a part of internal systems and like all our data very strictly secured and restricted.

Apologies for the delay in replying to your post, our offices were closed over the Easter period and I wanted to get the right details confirmed for you

Tim

[Myrtle · Accepted solution]

Thanks for following it through. That sounds like a fair system.