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macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,152
19,723
Big Data has been collecting your info for years. Every company does it. How is this any different than 100% of every other company?

Because Verizon is actually modifying your web traffic and there is no way to disable it:

As outlined by Wired, Verizon is altering the web traffic of its customers by inserting a Unique Identifier Header or UIDH, a temporary serial number that lets advertisers identify Verizon users on the web.

Modifying web traffic is a really slippery slope!
 

bassett700

macrumors member
Jan 8, 2009
93
12
Dingus, VA
I previously dismissed my wife's comment about getting a lot of Ashley Madison ads on her Iphone. Maybe I need to look deeper.
 

Demiles

macrumors member
Oct 16, 2013
67
58
I'm on Verizon and run all my traffic thru a VPN, that site doesn't pickup any identifier from my device.
 

SockRolid

macrumors 68000
Jan 5, 2010
1,560
118
Almost Rock Solid
... but AT&T customers can visit the following website on their mobile devices (while connected to the AT&T network) to turn off Relevant Advertising ...

And don't forget to reset the Advertising Identifier on your iOS devices.
Do it often.

Settings App -> Privacy -> Advertising (at very bottom of screen) -> Reset Advertising Identifier.

Reset it every so often to keep advertisers off balance.
 

robertcoogan

macrumors 6502a
Apr 5, 2008
839
1,253
Joshua Tree, California
Didn't work

Well opting out on the AT&T network didn't work. The tracker is still active, despite going to the website and all. I did restart my iPhone as well.

I'll check again in 24 hours, see if it takes.
 

fred222

macrumors newbie
Feb 1, 2005
17
0
Disturbing activity

So what happens when you change your device repeatedly, and you still have activity that doesn't appear on your devices, but it appears on your online bill (after the heart bleed / bash bugs came out)?

Fourth iteration of devices for my wife and myself, ... my wife has a murderous KKK-affiliated step-mother who tried to get insurance money to kill her when she was a teenager; she's 37 now and I'm 31 and it's been a decade of hell, ... and we keep moving and switching phone numbers and accounts and still, we look at our bill and there's messages to/from numbers like 000-013-1313 or something like that, that Verizon says "you should talk to the police about that" ... and the last time it happened someone added an authorized user to our account with her name, birthdate, address, and SSN under my mother's name (who works for the navy on sensitive technical stuff) and two days later instead of a response to the crime, we had two burly police and one skinny twitchy skinhead police officer (?) behind them demanding entry to our home at 10:30pm at night (saying it was "suspicious" we wouldn't just let three guys with guns who wouldn't give their names, badge numbers, call us, or set up an appointment into our home)... Durham, NC police chief scandal yeah it was just one fake 911 call. We experienced two, personally. And we aren't the one person on record as having had this happen to them. But the Chief says it's one, even though his internal memo says "some officers might have..." i.e. multiple officers.

Plus we were on the **** list from the start because the police eat for free at a restaurant/bar we worked for before the Irish owner's Irish employee admitted that he was friends with people affiliated with the terrorist Irish Republican Army moving drugs under the guise that they were guns through Ireland. But the police would rather make up ******** calls about our neighbors "thinking we might be smoking pot" than TERRORISM. Can you get more corrupt?

Here's a taste of what my wife's uncle on her step-mother's side has had to say. He supposedly makes 70-80 dollars an hour as a doorman, and if you believe that's his sole job function, I have a bridge to sell you. http://youtu.be/uC4j8NTkk70
 
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NY Guitarist

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2011
1,585
1,581
Corporate STALKER LAWS need to be created.

I'm already paying for my cell and data service, I see no reason corporations should be allowed to track and/or sell your metadata without first, explicitly and in plain language, asking the end-user for permission.
 
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lotones

macrumors regular
Aug 6, 2010
149
193
Corporate STALKER LAWS need to be created.

I'm already paying for my cell and data service, I see no reason corporations should be allowed to track and/or sell your metadata without first, explicitly and in plain language, asking the end-user for permission.

This is absolutely true. Besides the obvious constitutional "right to privacy" issues, without laws stating such our government has sold the entire population to corporations for private profit. Corporations whose shareholders are members of Congress.

The very definition of "conflict of interest."
 

cr2

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2011
340
112
Any suggestions...

That's the thing: They are not placing anything on your phone. They insert the tracking IDs into your traffic as it passes through their network. There is nothing you can do about it except encrypting your traffic (using a VPN or forcing HTTPS everywhere).

How do I force HTTPS? Is there any setting? Any help / guidance will be highly appreciated.

Even though I have opted out, I don't trust ATT or Verizon for that matter.

Thanks.
 

anek007

macrumors regular
Jul 30, 2014
189
186
I think its more than just att or verizon. On my wifi only iPad. When I use safari I keep getting the same ads of saw tools I searched for 2 months ago. I switch to chrome app and i get random ads that irrelevant to me.
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
Those sneaky bastards.... :mad:

Clever, but sneaky...


At least, you can opt out of advertising anyway... But i'd value my privacy more, advertising second...

Either that, or i'd just change providers..... It's enough to make anyone go mental...
 

ctone

macrumors regular
Nov 28, 2006
103
4
More slimy stuff courtesy of Verizon:

Verizon is launching a tech news site that bans stories on U.S. spying

By Patrick Howell O'Neill on October 28, 2014

Verizon is getting into the news business. What could go wrong?

The most-valuable, second-richest telecommunications company in the world is bankrolling a technology news site called SugarString.com. The publication, which is now hiring its first full-time editors and reporters, is meant to rival major tech websites like Wired and the Verge while bringing in a potentially giant mainstream audience to beat those competitors at their own game.

There’s just one catch: In exchange for the major corporate backing, tech reporters at SugarString are expressly forbidden from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today.

rest of the story here:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/verizon-sugarstring-us-surveillance-net-neutrality/?tw=pl
 

ThunderSkunk

macrumors 68040
Dec 31, 2007
3,830
4,082
Milwaukee Area
The two happiest days for a boat owner:

The day he buys his boat, and...

The day he sells his boat.

That's usually true, and the old addage applies: If it flies, floats, or f@#&'s, it's better to rent it.

...unless woodworking happens to be one of your hobbies and you enjoy working on boats as much as you enjoy cruising in them.
 

tennisproha

macrumors 68000
Jun 24, 2011
1,586
1,085
Texas
slightly off topic yet right on topic, does anyone know a good guide to understanding and setting up a VPN network for one's home network?

I know what a VPN basically does but I don't quite understand the gritty details or how to set up a foolproof network (like I hear if the connection drops, you're instantly revealed or something).

thanks!
 

s2mikey

Suspended
Sep 23, 2013
2,490
4,255
Upstate, NY
Ironically, many people complaining about his use facebook or whatever and have to realize that everything you do or share on the web in any capacity is likely tracked and or sold. That's how Zuckerboy got so rich. Selling your personal data and mining it.

Still, it's pretty dodgy. Glad I tend to stay away from smart phones.
 

Tom-Create-Pro

macrumors member
Oct 15, 2014
58
0
UK
At least AT&T are telling people what they are doing. Apple and the Government have been spying on us for years without telling us.
 

bmauter

macrumors member
Sep 3, 2010
37
3
I don't see how encryption (VPN or otherwise) can have any effect on this. You send an encrypted request via web and they inject a tracking ID on top of your encrypted request. If the website you visit has any trackers or beacons looking out for that tracking ID your visit is immediately identified and shared with Verizon/AT&T's network, so they can effectively track any site you've visited that has an affiliated tracker/beacon.

HTTPS/SSL/TLS means the data is sent encrypted from the originating host to the receiving host. In addition to proving the server is who he says he is, those technologies guarantee confidentiality. The telco can't see/change anything.

YOU ----------- TELCO ------------ SERVER <-- unencrypted
x *************************** x <-- encrypted

There is an exception to this, but if ATT and VZW are doing it, I'd be surprised. If they're configured as a root certificate authority on your device, they could decrypt the traffic from the server, insert their tracker and then re-encrypt it, posing as the original server. Your device wouldn't care because the certificate would look valid. Many corporations do this for their internal networks. If the telcos were doing this, it would be even bigger news than an HTTP header.

Once again, this has nothing to do with cookies and VPN is useless against it.

Do you know how cookies are sent by a web server? They're HTTP headers, just like the nastiness ATT & VZW are sending. They're part of the HTTP response. That HTTP response is enveloped by SSL/TLS when you use an https link.

The only thing that makes cookies differ from any other HTTP header is that when your browser makes a second request back to the web server, any cookies matching that domain are automatically sent back too--as HTTP request headers.

VPNs do defeat this.
 
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Caseynd

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2008
132
54
ND, USA
I smell a lawsuit.
I have all my tracking stuff set to no for Big Red, yet they are still sending a unique UIDH to websites, which compromises my privacy. I have a feeling that in a couple years we will all be getting settlement emails...
 

NY Guitarist

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2011
1,585
1,581
I hate being STALKED by corporations.

Is this an issue only when using a web browser via cellular data, or does it involve mobile apps as well when using AT&T or Verizon service?

Now that I think of it does this affect when I use the WiFi connection on my cell too?
 

Bill9999

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2014
3
0
Switched to T-Mobile

This was the last straw as far as AT&T is concerned. My family just switched to T-Mobile. We have more or less the same plan for $20 less per month than AT&T was charging, with great new features for communicating on our overseas travels. Data throttling, if it occurs, is at least acknowledged by our new carrier. T-mobile bought out my early termination fee with AT&T, and paid a lot more than my iPhone 5 was worth for a trade in. Hopefully, they won't join Verizon and AT&T in surveillance our iPhone cellular traffic, but I trust them more than I do AT&T. I'm glad this finally pushed me to switch.
 
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