Supercookies, like those being used by Verizon and other companies, make it easier for advertisers to reach a consumer with targeted ads across devices.
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Re/Code said it was important for Verizon that it has the option of letting consumers opt out or requiring their consent for its own use of UIDH.
Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) will pay a $1.35 million fine and agreed to a three-year consent decree after the Federal Communications Commission said on Monday it found the company’s wireless unit violated the privacy of its users.
The FCC began an investigation of Verizon Wireless in December 2014 after media reports raised privacy concerns about its use of the code, which is injected into web traffic as it flows across the internet, but persists across browsing sessions and can’t be deleted by wiping a browser’s history, in effect making it impossible to opt out.
Verizon Wireless tried to assure regulators that the third-party companies that were getting the information were unlikely to use it to build profiles on Verizon Wireless customers.
The supercookies, which the Federal Communications Commission said Verizon started using in 2012, landed their name because they were hard to block. As a result of the FCC investigation, Verizon will now notify consumers about its advertising programs and will obtain opt-in consent from consumers before sharing supercookies with third parties. Shortly after that, Verizon said it would offer customers a way to opt out. “Privacy and innovation are not incompatible”. The issue at hand was whether Verizon Wireless failed to appropriately protect customer proprietary information and whether it provided the proper disclosures.
“Over the past year, we have made several changes to our advertising programs that have provided consumers with even more options”, Richard Young, a Verizon spokesman, told the Times. “We will continue to give customers the information they need to decide what programs and services are right for them”.
According to the FCC’s full press announcement (pdf), the fairly measly $1.35 million settlement doesn’t stop the program, which likely won’t please many privacy advocates.
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The settlement is the second of the agency’s Open Internet enforcement actions.
