Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AT&T Stops Using 'Super Cookies' To Track Cellphone Data

Posted by timothy on from the turns-out-people-hate-that dept.

jriding (1076733) writes AT&T Mobility, the nation's second-largest cellular provider, says it's no longer attaching hidden Internet tracking codes to data transmitted from its users' smartphones. The practice made it nearly impossible to shield its subscribers' identities online. Would be nice to hear something similar from Verizon.

2 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. before giving ATT kudos.. by rogoshen1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The pattern more than likely will be something like this:
    1. get called out for bullshit, anti-consumer practice
    2. Throw out PR spin about how they care about their customers, and don't do said practice
    3. Finally admit to the practice, promise to stop
    4. Wait a length of time until the practice becomes more 'industry standard', and the furor has died down
    5. re implement under a new name

    This tracking garbage is probably far too lucrative -- both to law enforcement (well they see themselves as law enforcement) and advertisers to ever really pass up.

    Now that the genie is out of the bottle, it's not going back in.

  2. Putting ourselves in such awkward position ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reading the TFA

    AT&T Mobility, the nation's second-largest cellular provider, says it's no longer attaching hidden Internet tracking codes to data transmitted from its users' smartphones. The practice made it nearly impossible to shield its subscribers' identities online
     
     
    Would be nice to hear something similar from Verizon

    really makes me cringe!

    First of all, why on earth we, the users, putting ourselves at the mercy of companies such as Verizon or AT&T?

    I mean, WE PAID THEM to do the "data carrier job" for us, or in other words, they are not our boss

    Why are we letting them having the power to inserting "super cookies" (or whatever fuck else they can come up with) inside the datastreams that we paid them to carry?

    So many people making so much noise about FREE SERVICES search engines / social sites such as Google or FB for "tracking" them, where the hell are those people when PAID SERVICES such as AT&T and/or Verizon doing the same thing to them??

    Why are we giving away so much of our own rights??

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !