mikkibarry_esq's Posts

Might I suggest, MrHelper, that you do a bit of research on the technical side of what is happening here before you make statements like this?  It is akin to someone telling you that if you don't want police tracking everywhere you go, never leave your house, or if you don't want people listening in on your phone calls, don't use the phone.  How's about the postal service keeping track of all of the mail sent to and from your home, whether you ordered it or not, then using that information to send a door to door salesman to sell you life insurance?  "Hello MrHelper, I see you're a 65 year old who uses this list of prescription drugs, pays child support, and is late on your car payment.  Can I sell you this life insurance that will obviously disallow heart related deaths, since we know that your third cousin on your father's side had a heart attack recently?"  Well, just don't use the US postal service. 

I'm still being tracked.  I still have no answer regarding how to opt out of it, or get out of the early termination fee and get a rebate for all the CDMA equipment I bought to use on Verizon's system.

For complaints to the FCC, you can choose "wireless telephone" and write your complaint on this page: http://www.fcc.gov/complaints.  You can contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint by selecting "wireless telephone" from this site:  - FTC Complaint Assistant.  I am still ignored by Verizon, with no responses for several weeks.  Their "Privacy Office" never responded to my questions after they tried to convince me that there was no privacy issue because they, Verizon, were not using the tag they stuck to my outgoing stream.  I'm not giving up.  The thought that I am locked into hardware and a contract with a company that attaches a perpetual tracker to me without my consent, is abhorrent. 

Unfortunately, according to amibeingtracked.com, they are still broadcasting a UIDH I have complained to the FCC and to the FTC but have not yet been contacted, which I find to be a bit unusual to say the least.  I will contact both agencies tomorrow.  Is it possible that you could have been checking with your wifi turned on?  That will give you a false negative.

This is what I sent to the FTC.  In 2008, Verizon Wireless promised a Senate committee that they would not track users.  Sometime between then and about 2 months ago, Verizon planted an "x-UIDH" field into every Internet header used by every Verizon Wireless user. The field is a unique identifier, purportedly used to track users who do not opt out, to provide targeted advertising.  However, these unique identifiers can and have been used on websites and logins such as twitter to couple users PII to the identifier, tracking the user across the Internet, where others who are not associated with Verizon Wireless in any way, can track a user from website to website, collecting as much personal information as possible, across the world. Some of us were induced by and relied upon Verizon's 2008 promise, and by no mention of this "super cookie" in their privacy policy, to remain with Verizon's CDMA network rather than switch to another provider.  Many of us paid to upgrade our phones, further tying us to Verizon.  Imagine how privacy savvy users felt when it was discovered  through third parties that we could be stalked through these UIDH headers.  And yes, you read that right, Verizon did not disclose this to users, the Electronic Frontier Foundation did. Even now, Verizon has not publicly disclosed their privacy destroying ways. I asked Verizon on Twitter, on Facebook, and on their own forums how users could opt out of having this added header in our Internet streams.  There is no technical reason for it whatsoever, even on Verizon's own network.  Each response I received from Verizon was either obsfucating information, telling me how to opt out of the advertising scheme rather than the actual non consensual tracking malware, or telling me how much Verizon values my privacy while simultaneously destroying it in a far more dangerous way than anyone else has to date.  They even set up a website to lie to customers by saying this tracker is "harmless"  because they (Verizon) is not using it to track you if you opt out.  [content deleted for my own protection] after I started a petition drive on Change.org. I have appealed to the FCC, and now I'm appealing to you.  Please either force Verizon to remove this unnecessary and harmful tracker, or have them provide any user who desires it, a refund for any equipment purchased between their promise of 9/26/2008 and whatever date they finally choose to inform its users in a conspicuous manner that they are being tracked, and allow us to leave for another provider without an early termination fee.  It's only fair. end ftc complaint Verizon, we are still waiting.  I requested your privacy office to provide me more information in response to an email.  It did not happen.  I've asked you here to respond.  It did not happen.  I've asked you on Facebook and Twitter.  Still no response.  Does this mean that you have no intention to remove the tracker or to do right by those of us you broke your 2008 promise to?  As you can see, I'm not going away. 

I completely agree.  Here you go.  http://goo.gl/Usryze **Moderator Note:  As per the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service,  Participants may post hypertext links to content hosted and maintained by third parties. Verizon Wireless has no obligation to monitor these linked sites, and is not responsible for them. Accessing any such linked sites is done entirely at the user's own risk.

They put that in the TOS AFTER we had a contract with the company.  They did not inform us that it was changed.  They are supposed to inform us of material changes and give us the opportunity to end our contracts without termination fees if we do not agree with a material change.  This is one of the worst material changes they could have made.  So even on the basis of contract, they are wrong.  Did they provide you with an ECPA analysis? Meantime, sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/verizon-wireless-stop-destroying-privacy-by-tracking-users?utm_medium=email&utm_source=notifica… This should NOT be allowed to continue.

I've been asking the same question for weeks now, but Verizon has not yet responded.  FYI, AT&T announced today that they would stop tracking their users.  AT&T drops 'super cookies' from cellphone data | The Miami Herald Also, you may recall that AT&T and Verizon both promised in 2008 that they would not track.  AT& T, Verizon to Refrain From Tracking Users Online I have complained to the FCC and I am writing one up to the FTC.  This may also be a violation of the ECPA.  I suggest we band together to make this stop, or make them waive any fees to leave them.  For those of us with no other choices but Verizon or GSM, they should provide new equipment for us to access GSM. 

Verizon, we are STILL WAITING.  AT&T has come clean and decided NOT to track AT&T drops 'super cookies' from cellphone data | The Miami Herald Meantime, YOU, Verizon, had promised in 2008 that you would not track.  You lied.  AT& T, Verizon to Refrain From Tracking Users Online I ask you yet again...How do I opt out of this UIDH tracker, or how do I cancel my accounts for all devices and go elsewhere without penalty? 

I haven't received a response either.  I did file a complaint with the FCC and am working on another with the FTC.  It's a complete betrayal and abdication of trust.  I think we need to scream this to the masses.   I wonder if our newly elected Congress will be interested that their Verizon wireless web browsing is tagged with personal identifiers and collected for an undisclosed period of time to be used for "nothing now," but that could change any day, as Verizon's contract allows them to make changes at any time.  If Verizon won't tell us what to do to stop this, perhaps the FCC, FTC, and/or Congress will stop it for us.  Notice how they continually side step the issue by saying we can opt out of advertising, but never addressing the new neon blinking signs with our personal identifier on it being used on websites that log you in without using HTTPS (say Facebook for example?).  This is a very dangerous issue for privacy.  What we do here will map the future actions of telecoms. 

And by the way, Verizon Support.  Here's more information on what you are doing to us, your customers. https://www.eff.org/node/82886 This is not disclosed in your privacy policies,  you don't have my permission, and doing this is a betrayal of trust you can't recover from.

Verizon, I'm still waiting.  i've been a customer of yours for over 20 years, yet you still have not responded to my request.  I've received nonsense responses from one of yours on Twitter telling I can opt out on MyVerizon (not true), yet no information on how to remove the X-UIDH string from every single non encrypted URL I go to.  Twitter is matching these with login information. Nothing bad can come of this, right?  I want to either cancel all of my accounts with you, without any type of fee, or I want you to remove this flashing neon sign from my web traffic.  By the way, there is no difference between "collecting" and "disclosing" under ECPA.  Please advise ASAP, as every day I have a phone that is useless for browsing is another day I'm paying you to violate my privacy, and allow others to do the same. 

I did not ask you what the UIDH was, nor did I ask you to opt out of relevant mobile advertising, although I have.  I did not ask you whether Verizon tracks it.  Other companies can and do track it, and can track whatever websites I go to through capturing this additional header for which there is no entry in any of the applicable RFCs.  So again, I ask you how to opt out of it?  Thank you.