Verizon supercookies under review for violating consumer privacy and data laws
WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing whether Verizon Communication’s use of “supercookie” tracking software on its devices and website violated consumer privacy and data laws.
Supercookies are an identification number used to track and tag Internet users for advertisement purposes. Unlike regular and widely used Internet cookies, the supercookie cannot be disabled.
Verizon leadership, facing public backlash, promised in January to allow customers to opt-out of supercookie tracking; that option went live on March 31. To opt out, Verizon customers can visit the company’s website or call 866-211-0874.
The supercookie issue drew the ire of lawmakers in January when Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and other senior lawmakers penned an open letter to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam.
The elected officials called on Verizon to discontinue the use of supercookies. In February, lawmakers penned another letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC calling on those agencies to investigate the carrier’s practice.
The Hill reported that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler alerted lawmakers in a letter sent last month, but only made public Thursday, that the FCC would review supercookies.
Wheeler wrote: “I wholeheartedly agree that ensuring the privacy and security of sensitive personal information about consumers’ use of communications services is of the utmost importance.”
Wheeler cited the Federal Communications Act privacy provisions as grounds for the FCC review of Verizon’s practices.
“We are looking specifically into carriers’ injection of header information and the collection and use of information about their subscribers’ Internet activity,” Wheeler wrote. “As you suggest, we will be considering the extent to which our rules and policies relating to consumer privacy, data security and transparency may be implicated.”
McAdam is a vocal critic of the FCC, heavily criticizing the agency in a three-page open letter to Congress in March, calling for Congress to “to re-take responsibility for policymaking in the Internet ecosystem.”
Sen. Nelson has said the “whole supercookie business raises the specter of corporations being able to peek into the habits of Americans without their knowledge or consent. That’s why I think we need to get to the bottom of this and perhaps new legislation.”
