Lawmakers call for investigation of Verizon supercookies

Government agencies should investigate whether Verizon Wireless’ use of so-called supercookies to track the online activities of its subscribers amount to privacy violations, three U.S. senators said Friday.

Verizon’s use of the respawning, hard-to-defeat cookies on its mobile subscribers’ phones raises serious privacy problems, said the senators, all Democrats. Senators are considering new legislation to rein in the use of hard-to-delete cookies, said Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.

News reports last year also identified AT&T as using supercookies, but the company later dropped the activity.

“This whole supercookie business raises the specter of corporations being able to peek into the habits of Americans without their knowledge or consent,” Nelson said in a statement. ”That’s why I think we need to get to the bottom of this and perhaps new legislation.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here