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EFF Hints At Lawsuit Against Verizon For Its Stealth Cookies
An anonymous reader writes A few weeks ago I noted how security researchers had discovered that Verizon has been injecting a unique new 'stealth cookie' identifier into all user traffic that tracks user online behavior, even if the consumer opts out. Using a unique Identifier Header, or UIDH, Verizon's ham-fisted system broadcasts your identity all across the web — and remains intact and open to third-party abuse — even if you opt-out of Verizon's behavioral ad programs. Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint with the FCC and has strongly indicated that they're considering legal action against Verizon for violating consumer privacy laws.
Why don't ISPs simply focus on efficiently transferring packets and appropriately charging for the service? Are the profits generated by "stealth cookies" or "deep packet analysis" enough to pay for the engineering and hardware cost of these "features"?
It's doubly cute when they've done it before and won. :)
The EFF doesn't mess around, good for them. I almost wish my Verizon phone did that tracking. I'd love to be included in that class action. I'd have to make a copy of the $10 check I'd get in two years so I could frame it. I pay Verizon well over a $100 a month. If they think they need to sell out their users privacy on top of that revenue then screw them.
It still gives you a unique identifier (even if its encrypted, its deterministic enough to be used as an ID even if you can't decrypt it) that lets you uniquely identify a household for a period of time. Combined with other more legit tracking methods, you can do some deliciously evil things with it...
it actually reminds me of the Nazi's Enigma code. They also rotated every week, although eventually England managed to capture a code book...still, Verizon using Nazi ideas is not suprising lol