| Title | Verizon and AT&T Accused of Selling Your Location to Almost Anyone | |
| Date | Wednesday October 18 2017, @01:22AM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| 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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