Vodafone Privacy Policy Reveals Data ISP Collects from Your Network

Customers of Vodafone UK’s fixed line home broadband service (both FTTC and FTTH powered sides) may like to know that the ISP has recently updated their related Privacy Policy, which reveals just how much data they’re collecting from your home network and router. Some will be surprised, others will be “meh..“

The change was first covered by The Register, which had in turn picked up on some customer gripes (here). In fairness the data being gathered by Vodafone doesn’t look all that unusual given the services they offer and it’s a positive sign that the provider has spelled this out in their privacy document, which is something that others could learn from.

Nevertheless some may be uncomfortable with the idea of a third-party company (Airties A.S) having access to process that data, even if Vodafone claim to have conducted checks to ensure that they’re not leaking out lots of sensitive stuff. A key extract from their policy can be found below.

Extract from Vodafone’s Privacy Policy (Home Broadband)

Home Broadband and Wi-Fi

Vodafone Home Broadband provides your hardware with connectivity in the home. In order for you to be able to access the internet, we process data such as the kind of device you are browsing on (for example, each device will have a media access control (MAC) address), your browsing speeds, and the amount of data you’re using (for example, streaming videos will use up more data than email, although we don’t see what it is you’re doing).

…
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 WiFi networks (MAC addresses and identifiers, radio statistics).

Personal information we collect about you

Information about the Wi-Fi network of your home may be collected and sent to the Vodafone platform.

This platform is facilitated by a third party provider called Airties A.S.. Through this platform, this information may be accessed by the Customer Service Department in the event that the user calls us to report any type of problem with their Wifi or may be treated by your Network Maintenance and Operations Service to Resolve any issues. This information will be obtained from the Wifi devices or those connected to it.

Now while we can’t explain precisely why every single piece of data is gathered, we can take a stab at why most of it might be needed. Obviously an ISP wouldn’t be able to do its core task of providing you with internet access if they couldn’t control and process the traffic going over that connection in the first place, some of which is required by law (Investigatory Powers Act) to be logged (server IP addresses, volume of data, dates, times etc.).

Ofcom’s recently revised broadband speed code of practice has also caused signatory ISPs to build additional code into their routers, which enables them to more accurately test the speed of your connection without things like WiFi or local network load getting in the way. This is quite a useful tool for both them and end-users alike, enabling better monitoring of connection performance, stability and thus quality.

On top of that Vodafone, much like most of the other major broadband ISPs, are introducing various Mesh WiFi and cloud-based WiFi optimisation services that can learn where your wireless coverage is weakest by analysing its setup and the devices on your local area network (here).

Obviously the above algorithms cannot function unless they have some visibility of your local network environment and the devices, as well as related radio statistics, within it. Not to mention the ability to make remote tweaks to your WiFi in order to improve its performance. As above, such features are becoming fairly common among big ISPs today.

A Vodafone Spokesperson said:

“We are investing to improve the home broadband Wi-Fi experience for our customers. The speed and reliability of a Wi-Fi connection can suffer as more devices are connected in the home and from increased interference from similar devices in neighbouring houses and flats. Our service helps overcome these issues.”

The good news is that one Vodafone agent initially suggested that customers should be able to opt-out of this (“as is their right“), although in order to do so you’ll have to manually fill out this form rather than click a simple switch in your account. “Our privacy team will [then] investigate your request for you,” said the support agent in a somewhat non-committal way.

However Vodafone’s official spokesperson later confused matters slightly by saying, “We are not providing an opt out mechanism because this is an essential service to give customers an improved home broadband experience.” Of course one way around this would be to use a third-party router and mesh WiFi system, rather than the one provided by Vodafone, which would reduce their ability to nosy around your LAN.

On the other hand it should be remembered that ISPs are generally providing these features as a means of helping to improve your connection, WiFi and customer support. The goal is not an evil one, even if the execution could perhaps benefit from a little more flexibility and end-user control (choice).