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AT&T, Verizon Using 'Perma-Cookies' to Track Customer Web Activity

8CoreWhore said:
Is it possible for Apple to make iOS foil their tracking?
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Nope. Not unless Apple forced all iOS devices to VPN thru to Apple, but that would require insane amounts of bandwidth and processing power on Apple's part.

And it would all be for nothing if your provider decided they don't like VPNs and blocked them.
 
waveboreale said:
Great idea. I might do the same. Tired of being tracked everywhere
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Unless you block cookies (and break 90% of all websites to the point of unusability) you're gonna be tracked. VPN only encrypts the packets, cookies are inserted before the packets leave the client/server machines.
 
VPN died over LTE

Don't know if this is related but my VPN service stopped working over LTE and 4G service this morning. Still works over WiFi. Been using it continuously since I got my iPhone 6 so I know it was working, but service says it can't find server if I turn off WiFi. Tried more than one server, still no luck.

Not Cool.
 
Anyone have recommendations for a good VPN? I have no choice but to stay with Verizon. I'd like to beat them at their own game, for once.
 
This is heinous. I hope it actually makes big news. These things matter and it shouldn't be allowed.
 
Vpn

I run all my traffic through my ISP's VPN.
You log in with your credentials so they can encrypt all your traffic if you are on public WiFi.

So when I turn my device on, VPN gets turned on.
When you do that the UID is no longer there.
 
MacBjorn said:
Opted Out. Appreciate the links.
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At the link that tells you if you are being tracked, he mentions in an update:
AT&T Opt Out settings do not seem to have any noticeable effect. In my case, 350 characters of the X-ACR tag have persisted over 5 days, even after multiple IP reassignments, and even during a business trip 550+ miles away from home.
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So when that other AT&T link that claims to allow you to opt-out....and then says that you will no longer be tracked, it is apparently lying to you. Ken White's site still shows me as being tracked, and yours most likely will also show this.
 
Maflagulator said:
So when that other AT&T link that claims to allow you to opt-out....and then says that you will no longer be tracked, it is apparently lying to you. Ken White's site still shows me as being tracked, and yours most likely will also show this.
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I'm not really following this thread, but I thought the whole point was that "opting out" does not stop tracking, but only makes you stop getting targeted ads.

You'll still be tracked, only you'll get random ads.
 
usmaak said:
Anyone have recommendations for a good VPN? I have no choice but to stay with Verizon. I'd like to beat them at their own game, for once.
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I use Private Internet Access, which has been absolutely solid and fairly priced at $6.95 / month:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/

For what it's worth, their servers do *no* traffic logging.

The first time you use a VPN on an iPhone, it's a head smacking experience: "Why didn't I set this up ages ago??" It's so easy, and very well-designed in terms of how you turn it on and monitor it via the "VPN" icon at the top of the phone. I'm mainly referring to the usage of public wifi access points ... after you start using a VPN you wonder how you could have ever been so stupid as to use public wifi without one.

I'm on AT&T, and I confirmed via the test page linked in the article that my tracking ID (which is there over regular LTE -- dammit!) goes away when VPN is enabled over LTE.
 
What if Apple started doing the same thing ?

ISP's no more about you.

...or try Pro XPN

Although, I wonder if this tracking would still go through if you were in Private browsing mode.
 
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kdarling said:
I'm not really following this thread, but I thought the whole point was that "opting out" does not stop tracking, but only makes you stop getting targeted ads.

You'll still be tracked, only you'll get random ads.
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Correct. I re-read their statement after I posted that.

Thank you. This device will not be receiving AT&T AdWorks Relevant Advertising.
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So yeah. They're say that they won't send you location based and other relevant ads based on things you search for and look at, but they'll still be tracking your habits and such for their own self-interest.

I'd almost rather get ads relevant to my interest than garbage ads, especially since they're still tracking me. Ugh.
 
Maflagulator said:
I'd almost rather get ads relevant to my interest than garbage ads, especially since they're still tracking me. Ugh.
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Yep.

Btw, people forget that iOS also has such a tracking number, the IDFA (IDentifier For Advertisers).

Turning it "off" (or resetting it) does not prevent us from getting ads or being tracked.

It simply prevents us from seeing ads that are targeted at our interests.

advertising_id.png

Moreover, it's a voluntary compliance thing. Turning on "Limit Ad Tracking" simply sets a flag that the developer is supposed to honor, and not use the ID to track us.
 
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kdarling said:
Yep.

Btw, people forget that iOS also has such a tracking number, the IDFA (IDentifier For Advertisers).
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Yes, but this is different. The iOS advertising identifier is only accessible to apps that you yourself have installed on the device, and you can change the identifier at any time. The tracking ID that Verizon inserts into your HTTP requests is accessible to every single web site you visit (even if it is not participating in Verizon's marketing program), including all kinds of ad and tracking networks that deploy tracking banners and "bugs" on web sites all over the Internet. And only Verizon can change the ID. The user has no choice at all.
Moreover, it's a voluntary compliance thing. Turning on "Limit Ad Tracking" simply sets a flag that the developer is supposed to honor, and not use the ID to track us.
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True. More specifically (quote from the developer docs):

"If the user has limited ad tracking, use the advertising identifier only for the following purposes: frequency capping, attribution, conversion events, estimating the number of unique users, advertising fraud detection, and debugging."
 
I'd rather be able to limit it as an end user, than not have any control of it at all..


Either way, to me, target, not not-targeted, it doesn't really matter since i have no intended of clicking them anyway.

Just because an ad is targeted doesn't mean squat... If it sparks me intent i'll search for it.. I never click ads.... Period...

There was a time i used to care the retentiveness of advertising, but that's gone out the window. However, i can see if its more relative, the user is more likely to click, but it has no effect on me whats-so-ever....

For this reason I keep "Limit advertising" in iOS disabled.
 
Tech198 said:
Either way, to me, target, not not-targeted, it doesn't really matter since i have no intended of clicking them anyway.
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A lot of us are the same way.

Makes you wonder who actually does click on those ads.

For this reason I keep "Limit advertising" in iOS disabled.
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You mean, you keep it Enabled (turned ON).

Apple implemented it in a confusing way. Many people just glance at the switch and think that "Off" means they're not being targeted... when it's exactly the opposite. I.e. from Business Insider:

apple-tracking.jpg

As Business Insider noted, iPhones are shipped with various tracking enabled by default. They point out various places to disable it.
 
soosy said:
This is heinous. I hope it actually makes big news. These things matter and it shouldn't be allowed.
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Back in 2008, it did make news - but not for the wireless branches of VZW and ATTWS...

"Verizon believes that before a company captures certain Internet-usage data . . . it should obtain meaningful, affirmative consent from consumers," said Thomas J. Tauke, Verizon executive vice president."

Blah, blah, blah... :rolleyes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092504135.html
 
kdarling said:
A lot of us are the same way.

Makes you wonder who actually does click on those ads.



You mean, you keep it Enabled (turned ON).
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No,,, I keep it disabled "off" which is the default, meaning i just leave it alone, since i don't really care which ads are or are not targeted to me, since i have no interest...


I i did happen to be interested in anything, i'd search for it myself.

Personally, these ad agencies would make lot of money just by having a non-clicking ad..

basically, just by viewing it they get paid... I wonder why no one has thought of this.
 
Tech198 said:
No,,, I keep it disabled "off" which is the default, meaning i just leave it alone, since i don't really care which ads are or are not targeted to me, since i have no interest...
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I'd recommend to at least turn off location services for iAds, which will prevent your location from being sampled just for ads.
I i did happen to be interested in anything, i'd search for it myself.
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Same here. I have never (intentionally) clicked on a banner ad in my life.
Personally, these ad agencies would make lot of money just by having a non-clicking ad..

basically, just by viewing it they get paid... I wonder why no one has thought of this.
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Many online ads are actually paid by "impression", i.e. how many times they are displayed as opposed to clicked. Total waste of money in my case. :D
 
Good article about the issue by the EFF that describes how it works and what some of the dangers are:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x-uidh

Also interesting: Corporate and government subscribers are apparently excluded, while everybody else doesn't even get a real choice to opt out. Verizon seems to think some customers are more deserving of privacy than others.
 
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I was furious when finding out about this. :mad:

Rather than taking it off my account myself, I decided to call AT&T and force them to do it. They put it on my account, they can take it off. I have been on with them for 2 hours educating them as to what they are doing. It is clear that the rank and file of AT&T has no clue as to this going on.

I would encourage EVERYONE to call their support lines and get them to remove this from your phones (don't do it yourself). Such surreptitious violations of your / our privacy are unacceptable.

The point of forcing them to take it off is to use their phone line, hit their help desk statistics, show a cost of supporting this deceitful practice and violation of **our** Second Amendment rights.

There needs to be a class action law suite filed.

Violating my under-18 daughter's web privacy is tantamount to being a digital pediphile.
 
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