Verizon and AT&T installed unblockable tracking cookies on user devices to monitor browsing habits. Robert Siciliano explains what advertisers and government agencies can do with that data, and recommends tools like Hotspot Shield to protect yourself.
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This is Fox 25 Morning News.
First, did you know your wireless provider may be tracking your every move? Coming up, we're talking about what they are doing with the information and what you can do to protect your privacy. So some major companies may be using your mobile internet activity and web habits to their advantage with the use of unblockable trackers called super cookies, and privacy advocates, well, they're not so happy. So what are your rights? Joining me from our Beacon Hill studio this morning is McAfee Online Security expert Robert Siciliano. Good morning.
Good morning.
All right, so what is a super cookie?
Yeah, I'm not happy either. You know, this is a technology on our mobile devices, our smartphones essentially, that tracks the websites we visit, our preferences essentially. So whenever you visit a website, say on your browser on your laptop or desktop, you might notice like in Facebook or other websites that there is the product or website you just visited as an ad to the right or to the left. Well, That is basically a super cookie tracking what you do, and on your mobile device, that same technology is there looking at all the different places you go, and mobile carriers now have a fingerprint, essentially, a footprint, digital footprint of where you're going, what you like, and trying to— so they can sell you on different preferences, products and services, and so forth.
So, for example, if I'm shopping online at Nordstrom's for dresses or anywhere else for anything, they can figure out what brands that I like, and then what do they do with that information?
Well, they then turn that over to advertisers and marketers who begin to actually target you and sell you stuff. And, you know, that kind of feels creepy. And the issue there is that the federal government, the snoops, the spies, the investigations communities, they could very well have access to that type of data.
So is there any way to know that you're being tracked? Can consumers erase these super cookies, or is there, you know, a setting that you can use so they can't even track you in the first place?
Well, that's the problem. See, if you actually are on a smartphone, you really can't erase these super cookies. Now there has been a way at one point for Verizon users to opt out, but that's an obscure process. I believe you can look it up and maybe attempt to make that happen, but you know, they're still tracking. The best way at this point to get out of that is by obscuring your IP address. Your IP address basically is connected to your device when you surf. Your carrier knows your IP address. One of my clients, they called Hotspot Shield. That's a download, it's a program you install. It obscures your IP address basically so that they don't know who you are. They really can't put a full profile together about you.
So I guess it's safe to say that nothing online is private, right, my friend?
That is correct.
Okay, thank you so much for joining us, Robert Siciliano. Great to see you, and we'll see you soon.
