Tag Archive for: ‘supercookies’

Verizon subscribers can now opt out of ‘supercookies’

Verizon customers can now opt out of having a unique identifier placed on their phones that critics have labelled a ‘supercookie’ because it’s almost impossible to remove.

Verizon said in January that it would allow subscribers to opt out of the tracking mechanism, but it didn’t say when. On Tuesday, it said the identifier won’t be inserted for customers who opt out of its mobile advertising program.

The move hasn’t satisfied privacy advocates, who say many customers won’t be aware that they need to opt out of the program. The identifier should be “opt in” instead, those advocates say.

“This is an improvement, but it doesn’t do nearly enough,” said Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, a senior staff technologist with Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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Lawmakers call for investigation of Verizon supercookies

Government agencies should investigate whether Verizon Wireless’ use of so-called supercookies to track the online activities of its subscribers amount to privacy violations, three U.S. senators said Friday.

Verizon’s use of the respawning, hard-to-defeat cookies on its mobile subscribers’ phones raises serious privacy problems, said the senators, all Democrats. Senators are considering new legislation to rein in the use of hard-to-delete cookies, said Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.

News reports last year also identified AT&T as using supercookies, but the company later dropped the activity.

“This whole supercookie business raises the specter of corporations being able to peek into the habits of Americans without their knowledge or consent,” Nelson said in a statement. ”That’s why I think we need to get to the bottom of this and perhaps new legislation.”

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Network World Security

Verizon to allow opt-out from mobile ‘supercookies’

Verizon will soon allow customers to opt out of having an identifier placed on their phones that had alarmed privacy advocates due to its ability to let third parties persistently track customers.

The identifier or customer code drew concerns primarily because it created so-called “supercookies” that could not be deleted by users. Verizon customers have had the ability to opt out of the company’s advertising programs, but not out of having that identifier placed on their devices.

Now, “we have begun working to expand the opt-out to include the identifier referred to as the UIDH [unique identifier header], and expect that to be available soon,” a Verizon spokeswoman said Friday via email. She added that “Verizon never shares customer information with third parties as part of our advertising program.”

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