Verizon will soon let you opt out of its persistent perma-cookies

Verizon has announced that it will soon allow users to opt out of the customer-tracking identifiers that have come to be known as "supercookies."

The undeletable cookies are part of Verizon's ad-targeting process, though users have been able to opt out of that part for a while.

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But even if you did opt out of letting advertisers access information about you via Verizon's "Unique Identifier Header" (UIDH), that didn't stop it from tracking you anyway - until now, at least, according to the New York Times' Bits blog.

Critics' choice

Critics - including the US Senate's Committee on Commerce and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - have pointed out that advertisers and other third parties could potentially exploit the Verizon supercookies and use the data to track users whether we want it or not, and Verizon has now responded by announcing they'll soon let users shut the cookies off entirely.

"We listen to our customers and provide them the ability to opt out of our advertising programs," a Verizon spokesperson told the site. "We have begun working to expand the opt-out to include the identifier referred to as the UIDH, and expect that to be available soon."

The EFF, however, maintains that the carrier should go one step further and have the tracking shut off by default, allowing customers to choose to opt in if they wish. Whether or not that happens, this is still a positive step.

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