AT&T to phase out experimentation with super-cookies

AT&T would be phasing out its experimentation with super-cookies, which would leave Verizon as the only US wireless carrier still tracking its customers on behalf of its advertisers techtimes.com reported.

It was not clear when AT&T started implementing super-cookies, but it recently emerged that Verizon had been doing so for at least two years. According to AT&T, it was testing the tracking on a limited scale, but now it had revealed that it was eliminating super-cookies.

Though Verizon's tracking initiative was still going strong, the fact that consumer outrage had prompted AT&T to at least reconsider its usage of supercookies showed that subscriber opinion could invoke meaningful change, Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation said.

He added, it was also a victory for carrier non-interference with customer data. He said the EFF called on Verizon to follow AT&T's lead and terminate their tracking header injection programme or convert it to a true opt-in, immediately.

According to Hoffman-Andrews, there were reports indicating that wireless carriers outside the US had been using super-cookies to track their subscribers.

Hoffman-Andrews said the EFF called on all network providers globally to respect their customers' data and not inject tracking headers.

The change by AT&T essentially would see the removal of a hidden string of letters and numbers that were passed along to websites that a consumer visited. It could be used to track subscribers across the internet, a lucrative data-mining opportunity for advertisers that could still reveal users' identities based on their browsing habits, AP reported.

According to Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile firm in the US, it still used the type of tracking, known as "super cookies." According to Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis business and government customers did not have the code inserted. There had been little evidence that Sprint and T-Mobile had used such codes.

Lewis  added that consumers could ask that their codes not be used for advertising tracking. However, their codes coud still be passed on to to websites, despite subscribers saying they did not want their data to be used for marketing purposes.

Tracking codes formed part of the latest plan by the cellular industry to keep tabs on users and their devices. While the codes did not explicitly contain personal information, they were unique and nonetheless sent to websites alongside personal details that a user might submit voluntarily -- like a name or a phone number.