There’s been a lot of chatter recently about provisions in Internet Service Provider acceptable use policies that some fear are too broad.

Critics worry that the provisions, including wording in Verizon Online’s acceptable use policy, could be interpreted as a company threatening to disconnect a customer’s service if that customer criticized the company online.  Of course, we didn’t intend it that way and we have never invoked the provision in that manner.

Still, we’ve decided to eliminate the language from the policy.

The intent of this provision – which, as I mentioned, has been in our policy for nearly a decade -- has always been to stop anyone who might represent themselves as Verizon in an attempt to do harm.  This would include clearly illegal activities such as using our name or trademarks to engage in phishing, identity theft, sale of bogus services and other types of fraud. 

Because we were concerned that some people believe we could abuse this provision, we will be removing it from the policy.  Other provisions that were added to the policy over the years now adequately address various fraud scenarios, so the original provision is no longer needed.

We appreciate those who raised their concerns on this issue.  Both positive and negative comments about Verizon in online forums – including those from readers of this blog – are great learning opportunities.