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Verizon, AT&T are tracking Web use [Emirates News Agency (WAM) (United Arab Emirates)](Emirates News Agency (WAM) (United Arab Emirates) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Verizon and AT&T have been quietly tracking the Internet activity of more than 100 million cellular customers with what critics have dubbed "supercookies" — markers so powerful that it's difficult for even savvy users to escape them. The technology has allowed the companies to monitor which sites their customers visit, cataloging their tastes and interests. Consumers cannot erase these supercookies or evade them by using browser settings, such as the "private" or "incognito" modes that are popular among users wary of corporate or government surveillance. Verizon and AT&T say they have taken steps to alert their customers to the tracking and to protect customer privacy as the companies develop programs intended to help advertisers hone their pitches based on individual Internet behavior. But as word has spread about the supercookies in recent days, privacy advocates have reacted with alarm, saying the tracking could expose user Internet behavior to a wide range of outsiders — including intelligence services — and may violate federal telecommunication and wiretapping laws. One civil-liberties group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says it has raised its concerns with the Federal Communications Commission and is contemplating formal legal action to block Verizon. AT&T's program is not as advanced and, according to the company, is still in testing. The stakes are particularly high, privacy advocates say, because Verizon's experimentation with supercookies is almost certain to spur copycats eager to compete for a larger share of the multibillion-dollar advertising profits won by Google, Facebook and others. Those companies track their users and sell targeted advertising based on what they learn. Supercookies could allow cellular carriers and other Internet providers to do the same, potentially encircling ordinary users in tracking far more extensive than experienced today. "You're making it very difficult for people who want privacy to find it on the Internet," said Paul Ohm, a former Federal Trade Commission official who teaches at the University of Colorado Law School. Verizon began tracking its 106 million "retail" customers — meaning those who don't have business or government contracts — in November 2012, the company said. The company excluded all government and some business customers, though it would not say how many. Verizon said it sent notifications to customers and offered a way for them to opt out of the program, but it declined to say how many did. Privacy advocates, who typically favor systems in which customers must choose to participate by opting in, have long maintained that such company notices are ineffective; the few who read them struggle to express their preferences. Even those who did opt out of the Verizon program still have a unique identifying code attached to all of their Web traffic, the company said, but that information is not used to build behavioral profiles that are sold to advertisers. AT&T declined to say how long it has been tracking its customers' Internet behavior but said the program remains in testing and has not yet been used to target advertising. "We are considering such a program, and any program we would offer would maintain our fundamental commitment to customer privacy," spokeswoman Emily Edmonds said in an email. (c) 2014 Emirates News Agency (WAM) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |