The first thing that should pop into anyone's head when they hear the term "supercookie" is, well, a massive cookie. This begs the question why Verizon is paying a $1.35 million fine to settle a probe by the Federal Communications Commission over its usage of such cookies with customers - which shouldn't be all that bad unless they were allergic.
As it turns out, "supercookies" aren't the massive and delicious baked goods that one would expect to find at your grandmother's house, rather supercookies, otherwise known as unique identifier headers (UIDH), refers to ad targeting technology which tracks the websites visted by phones on a network.
"Consumers care about privacy and should have a say in how their personal information is used, especially when it comes to who knows what they're doing online," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. "Privacy and innovation are not incompatible."
The probe into Verizon's use of supercookies began in 2014, with the FCC trying to determine whether the company failed to adequately protect customer privacy and failed to reveal to customers that their online habits were being monitored.
The FCC's investigation found that Verizon Wireless began inserting UIDH into consumer Internet traffic as as early as December 2012 up through 2014 - a violation of a 2010 FCC regulation on Internet transparency.
Though aware of the issue, Verizon didn't allow customers to opt out of the tracking until March 2015 when several U.S. senators raised concerns about the practice.
However, the problem with supercookies is that they weren't just used without a person's permission. but they also overrode customers' privacy settings they set on web browsers and it was impossible for people on Verizon's network to disassociate themselves from them, meaning that those who had the cookie ran the risk of being permanently tracked by a website or third-party advertiser. Thanks to this quality, some referred to the UIDHs as "zombie cookies."
Verizon had already been working on options it offers customers, but the settlement pushes those options one step further. In addition to allowing customers to opt out of the supercookie tracking program, customers who choose to opt in are able to determine who gets to see their information - a remedy to the "zombie cookie" situation.
For its part, Verizon said its decision to settle reflects its efforts in the past year to give customers more options in regards to its supercookie monitoring program.
"Verizon gives customers choices about how we use their data, and we work hard to provide customers with clear, complete information to help them make decisions about our services," Verizon spokesman Richard Young said. "Over the past year, we have made several changes to our advertising programs that have provided consumers with even more options. Today's settlement with the FCC recognizes that. We will continue to give customers the information they need to decide what programs and services are right for them."
