Seeking to improve its pisspoor customer service rating, UK telecoms giant Vodafone has clarified just how much information it slurps from customer networks. You might want to rename those servers, m’kay?
The updates are rather extensive and were noted by customers after a headsup-type email arrived from the telco.
One offending paragraph gives Vodafone an awful lot of information about what a customer might be running on their own network:
For providing end user support and optimizing your WiFi experience we are collecting information about connected devices (MAC address, Serial Number, user given host names and WiFi connection quality) as well as information about the the WiFi networks (MAC addresses and identifiers, radio statistics).
More accurately, it gives a third party that information. Airties A.S. is the company responsible for hosting information that Vodafone’s support drones might use for diagnostics.
With Vodafone topping the broadband and landline complaint tables, according to the most recent Ofcom data (PDF), the company would naturally want to increase the chances of successfully resolving a customer’s problem. However, there is no way to opt out.
Robin Edgar
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