VERIZON TWEAKS PRIVACY POLICY, STARTS SHARING LOCATION AND OTHER GOODIES WITH ADVERTISERS

Verizon Wireless began alerting its customers of changes to its official privacy policy on Friday. The carrier confirmed it will now use information for “private business and marketing reports” and “making mobile ads more relevant.” Verizon Wireless will share the URL of websites you visit, the location of your device, as well as app and device feature usage. It will also share information on data and calling features and your demographic so that it, and outside firms, can create reports and target ads more efficiently.

Verizon did say, however, that it will not share any information that will identify its customers personally. “Protecting data and safeguarding privacy are high priorities at Verizon,” the company said in a statement to BGR. Instead, the information will be used to generate reports that may, for example, state that 5,000 of its customers visited ESPN during any given month and 89% were men.

“A local restaurant may want to advertise only to people who live within 10 miles, and we might help deliver that ad on a website without sharing information that identifies you personally,” Verizon Wireless explained in the notice.

If you are worried by the changes, you can stop Verizon Wireless from collecting your personal information by visiting http://www.vzw.com/myprivacy.

TWITTER SUSPENDS UBERTWITTER AND TWITDROYD FOR POLICY VIOLATIONS

Twitter on Friday suspended two very popular third-party Twitter applications for violating policies put in place for third-party developers who access Twitter’s APIs. UberTwitter, a top Twitter app for BlackBerry smartphones, and twitdroyd, an Android client, are both owned by UberMedia and have both been suspended. A Twitter spokesperson said they “violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways,” citing a Twitter policies covering “a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money.” It is unclear exactly what functions the apps were performing that violated Twitter’s policies. In its announcement of these suspensions, Twitter recommended that affected users download Twitter’s official mobile apps or other third-party apps instead of using UberTwitter or twitdroyd.

APPLE TO DISCONTINUE STOCKING FEE

According to Apple blog 9 to 5 Mac Apple will discontinue the 10% restocking fee. The fee is charged to customers who return non-defective products purchased from an Apple store. The new policy goes into effect tomorrow, January 11th.

APPLE UPDATES DEAD PIXEL POLICY

Apple recently updated its dead pixel policy according to BGR sources. The policy is used as a guideline for Mac Geniuses addressing customer issues that involve Apple displays. It essentially allows them to quickly and easily determine whether or not to repair or replace products with display defects. Apple provides its employees with a table showing the acceptable number of pixel anomalies for each product range. For example, iPhones and iPods with just one pixel anomaly should be repaired or replaced. MacBook Air models, however, can have up to three light pixels, up to five dark pixels or up to seven combined anomalies before they should be repaired or replaced. The table also outlines the allowable numbers of pixel anomalies for Apple’s MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac and Cinema Display lines.

Of note, Apple’s policy allows Mac Geniuses to offer exchange services even if pixel anomalies are within acceptable ranges. If the customer receives a replacement product with even more anomalies, but it is still within the acceptable range, further exchanges are not permitted. [BGR]