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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday October 18 2017, @01:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the can-you-find-me-now? dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Last year, you might remember that Verizon was in the news for reaching an agreement with the FCC. The issue centered around the tracking of its customers without consent. In reality, carriers have been doing this for years, but privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked Verizon and the FCC to put a stop to it. In the end, Verizon agreed to stop tracking customers unless they expressly agreed to opt-in to the program. The agreement between Verizon and the FCC was roundly seen as a win by privacy advocates and consumer rights groups.

Unfortunately, it looks like the practice is still in effect. Philip Neustrom, the co-founder of Shotwell Labs, recently found two demo websites that would return account details if visited from a mobile connection. By simply entering a zip code and clicking a button, the site would spit out the full name, current location, and more information.

It would appear that these sites are grabbing the information from the same process that Verizon got busted for. That program, the Unique Identifier Header, added information to HTTP requests from Verizon customers and then, for a fee, would let websites see the info. AT&T has a similar plan called the "Mobile Identity API".

You know what would fix this? A few more mergers.

Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/verizon-att-selling-information-807684/


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @02:07AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @02:07AM (#583761)

    Well, there's me and then there's Craig. At least, I hear his voice. Craig always tells me things, like "burn that" or "kill the cat". Craig is real!
    That's two of us!

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday October 18 2017, @02:20AM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 18 2017, @02:20AM (#583766) Journal

    Well, there's me and then there's Craig.

    Craig is deceiving you! He's not sensitive to your privacy!!!
    Wanna proof? Well, read no more than the privacy policy of his list [craigslist.org]

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @04:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @04:45PM (#584005)

      Not to be silly, but what's the problem with this privacy policy. I did a superficial scan, but in the 10 seconds I glanced I didn't see anything particularly worrying. in fact, given it is short and in plain English, I'm more inclined to believe it than the 15-page 8-point font ones everywhere now-a-days.