asimons04's Posts

Well, my area finally stopped attaching the tracking header.  About time, Verizon. This does not change my decision to cancel my service with them.  They ignored the complaints and cries of their customers and security experts and only took action after senators started asking questions about the UID program.  I will not financially contribute to this company's behavior any more than I am required to.  I'd have quit days ago at the end of my billing cycle, but the port request to keep my number would have pushed into the next cycle and Verizon's sneaky customer agreement states that service cancellation takes effect at the end of the cycle and they will bill me for the month anyway.  I think I'll just run out my data allotment, pay my bill off, and then cancel at whatever day in the month that falls on.  At this point, even though the tracking header is gone, I still don't trust this company not to find new and innovative ways to sell me out to advertisers behind my back.  "Verizon is committed to protecting your privacy"...yeah, right. Verizon, I knew you were scummy back in the days of the Moto RAZR when you disabled basic phone features and charged to get them back in a blatant cash grab, but I thought you had changed your ways when I signed up 5 months ago.  Oh, how wrong I was; I will never make that mistake again.  Good riddance forever.  If we ever cross paths again, I sincerely hope that you are nothing more than a website that sells used office supplies. Sincerely, A Pending Former Customer

They're not suddenly deciding to honor our privacy options out of the goodness of their hearts; they're only doing it because Senators in the Commerce Committee basically told them to cut it out. Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/under-senate-pressure-verizon-improves-its-supercookie-opt-out Profanity removed as required by the Message was edited by: Admin Moderator

Still have the tracking header in WV. I'm caring less and less each day.  Not because I'm letting Verizon off the hook in any way, I'm just sick of their "We can do what we want" attitude.  The $70 I pay them each month apparently isn't good enough, so they have to sell me out to advertisers without my consent so they can squeeze a few more dollars out of me.  My Droid Maxx works with an AT&T-compatible NET10 SIM, and I''ve been test-driving that for the last few days to great success.  When my next cycle starts in about a week, my ETF will be down to $300.  Verizon is losing out on $1125 even after I pay the $300 left on my ETF.  It's very much their loss because all they had to do was respect my privacy options and they'd be receiving my money for years to come.  But that's too much of a non-scumbag thing for them to do, and now it's going to cost them money.  So, I will gladly pay their ETF if that grants me freedom from this.  As a bonus, I get 3 GB of data vs the 2 GB I get with Verizon and I'll pay $16 less each month.  It's HSPA+ data vs LTE, but that's good enough for me, and I won't have to deal with Verizon's BS anymore. Profanity removed as required by the Message was edited by: Admin Moderator

I have "Unknown Sources" checked and "Verify Apps" unchecked already, so I didn't get prompted with anything when I installed it from the store.  I never thought about Google interfering with the install. You don' t necessarily have to use this app, but it's the first one I found and worked for me.  All that's really necessary for the workaround is to force the radio to 1X/EvDO mode and back to 4G after it associates.  The built-in "Preferred Network Mode" under "Mobile network settings" doesn't have the options necessary (at least on my phone) so I had to use the app. Did you get it to work?

You may have to turn off the "Verify Apps" option under Security settings. AFIAK, this app doesn't do anything funky.  I have no affiliation with the app developer. I think the reason it tells you it interferes with anything is because it takes you to a system menu that is otherwise disabled. I haven't noticed any weird behavior on my phone.

Also, if you enable Wifi and go back to mobile data, you'll have to repeat the workaround because it'll pull the X-UIDH. Alternatively, if you just force it to 3G and leave it, the X-UIDH won't get injected.

Ok, so still no X-UIDH after doing my workaround and handing off of several towers on my way to work this morning.  This is what I was expecting; the hand-offs are "soft" so the phone would not have to re-register with the network.  During the initial network registration (on 4G) seems to be when the X-UIDH is injected.  So, can anyone else verify if this workaround works for them? Note:  During my complaint processes with Verizon, the X-UIDH was briefly removed from my account for about 5 or 6 days before persistently rearing its ugly head again.  I don't know if this workaround has anything to do with that temporary removal, or if it will work regardless.  Please, someone let me know.

I've found a way to, temporarily at least, get rid of the UID without having to resort to using an always-on VPN (and the issues that come with that). See my posts on "How can I opt out of the broadcast UID Verizon has been putting in all of my web traffic..." thread. https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/1209837#1209837

I should clarify a few things from my previous post: Verizon is probably still spying on you even without the UID. I would almost guarantee they do deep-packet inspection, but at least this workaround keeps them from inserting the tracking ID (again, temporarily) that is visible to any 3rd party advertiser (or worse).  I have also confirmed that you do not have to be rooted for this to work.  The app I linked to is basically just a shortcut to a built-in system menu in Android that is otherwise inaccessible.  Also of note, this method should work on iPhone and Android, but I do not have an iPhone to test with nor do I know if an iPhone will let you force the radio to 1X/EVDO mode (probably not).  If anybody can verify that, I would love to hear from you. I will test tomorrow to see how this method handles tower hand-offs and such and post back.  Now that I think about it, Verizon probably won't even see this post because that would imply that they actually listen to their customers. Keep the letters and complaints going. Write your congressional reps.  Verizon is overstepping here, and they know it, but they don't care. They won't stop until they are forced to stop. 

I'm almost afraid to share this workaround because Verizon will surely close this loophole, but there IS a way to (temporarily, at least) suppress the X-UIDH without resorting to using an always-on VPN: From my testing, I have found that if my phone initially associates to the network in EVDO mode (3G), it does not get assigned a X-UIDH value.  If the phone initially associates in LTE, the value gets assigned.  Here's the kicker:  once it's established in 3G, you can then switch on 4G and it will switch to LTE without the X-UIDH being assigned. My Droid running KitKat will not allow me to force it to use 3G only.  However, I was able to download an app from the Play store (link at bottom) that takes me to the Phone Information/Preferred Network type settings.  Dialing *#*#4636#*#* will do the same thing, but it was disabled on my phone.  From there, I scrolled down past the network info and set the drop-down option for "Set preferred network type" to "GSM/CDMA auto (PRL)" to force it to 1X/EVDO mode.  This causes it to reassociate to the tower and drop down to 3G.  I then checked at lessonslearned.org/sniff to verify the X-UIDH was not present.  Once I confirmed it wasn't, I went back to the options and set the radio back to "LTE/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA".  The phone switched to 4G, but since it was already associated with the tower, it did not pull an X-UIDH.  I re-verified that the tracking header was not present.  Boom. 4G without Verizon spying on you.  If you lose signal or it has to do a "cold" tower association in 4G mode, it WILL pull an X-UIDH.  Simply repeat the process to remove it. I will need to do further testing to determine how it handles tower-handoffs and such and whether it will pull an X-UIDH value at that point. I shouldn't have to say this, but change the radio settings at your own risk, blah, blah blah.  These settings worked for me and should work for most 4G phones, but you should have at least a little knowledge of what you're doing before you try.  I don't believe you need to be rooted to do this. App Required: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mangelow.network Also, I've filed FCC, FTC, and BBB complaints and keep getting the same canned response.  I'm in the process of arbitration with the BBB, but I doubt that'll do much. Writing my representatives and attorney general next.

Are you BLEEPING kidding me? I just got a text from Verizon with a link to their privacy page in regards to my call.  Can't even send a letter this time? WHAT A JOKE! I'm going to bill them for the doctor's office visit co-pay I'm going to need after getting carpal tunnel from having to write all these letters to my representatives.  The game is on!

I just called Verizon again and worked my up through several tiers of agents to a supervisor.  She told me she had no way to remove the X-UIDH, and I believe her.  The reason I believe her is that I have worked for a cell provider in the past and know that I only had access to the options the higher ups allowed me. With the way Verizon is being so hush-hush about the matter and the fact the most of the reps I spoke with knew nothing about the X-UIDH tracking injection, I highly doubt there is an option available on their customer service portals.  She did, however, submit a ticket to the network engineering team and promised to call me back with a resolution (I'm taking that part with a grain of salt, but my fingers are crossed).  I have some hope, but not a lot, that the network engineering team may be able to help me.  The X-UIDH injection is being done at a network level on their side.  I have tried to insert my own value for X-UIDH on my side and it gets overwritten by Verizon before reaching the internet.  If the network engineering team removes my IMEI/ESN/etc from the processes that inject the X-UIDH or creates an exception for it, I have hopes that the issue can be resolved.  Time will tell, and I will update accordingly if and when I hear back from Melissa (the supervisor I spoke with).  Even if I am able to get the tracking ID removed, I still urge everyone to submit complaints to every three-letter agency with an ear in order to help stop this disgusting practice across the board. FCC Complaints Choose "Wireless Telephone" https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov FTC complaints:  I chose "Mobile Devices and Telephones" You can also contact your Congressional representatives and urge them to support any existing bill or draft a new bill that protects consumer privacy.  Only together can we stop companies like Verizon from vacuuming up any and all customer information they can get their hands on.

Same here.  I've tweeted, called, written letters, filed formal FCC complaint.  Nothing.  They are completely ignoring me on this issue.  The only thing they have done is send me a copy of their privacy policy after I talked to a clueless rep on the phone.  I just started using an always-on VPN.  Everything is encrypted so they can't inject anything or do DPI to sell my browsing data.  I'm paying them for a service (handsomely, might I add), so they should not be pulling this double-dipping crap.  If they want to make their services ad-supported, fine, but they need to disclose it as such and lower the rates substantially.  Oh, and HONOR THE FREAKING OPT-OUTS would be nice.  Even better?  Make it opt-in.