Verizon Settles “Supercookie” Investigation For $1.35M

[HardOCP News]

Verizon and the Federal Communications Commission have agreed to settle the “Supercookie” investigation by having Verizon pay a $1.35M fine and giving consumers the ability opt-out. So basically a slap on the wrist.


The order finds that Verizon waited more than two years after first using supercookies to disclose their presence and provide an opt-out to consumers. That’s in violation of rules requiring carriers to protect their customers’ proprietary information and also transparency/disclosure rules, so Verizon owes the FCC a $1.35 million fine. Additionally, the company will be required to adopt a three-year compliance plan for, well, not being out of compliance again during the next three years.

 

[cyclone3d]

Just one more reason to ditch overpriced Verizon once the phones on my plan are payed off.

 

[Bigshrimp]

I never liked Verizon. I always thought they costed too much and seemed to be trying to rip off every customer they could or use them to make more money any way possible.

 

[__hollywood|meow]

wheres the proper oversight here? FCC offers a harsh public statement & then fines them for peanuts. this is bullshit tbh

 

[pothb]

I never heard about this.... is this for their cell plans?

And I have to agree... a 1.35m fine? When they probably made like 800 mil or something from it and related service?

 

[KazeoHin]

yeah, The CEO has probably spent more than 1.35 mil on a nice dinner out for the board. That's hardly a slap on the wrist.

 

[Jagger100]

opt-out is some webpage burried deep under, I bet.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

People get fined more for downloading 20 songs....
There are two sets of laws in this country, one for the normal man and another for the rich and corporations.

 

[Uvaman2]

FCC does not really care about privacy or the customer, there might be some secondary concerns, but that about it.
Kind of like democracy its all about the perception of democracy or the perception of watching out for the customer in this case.
Since its been 2years verizon got the 'general-public forgot this' discount.
FCC doesn't need to do a big show and fine, since this is mostly forgotten.
If this was still fresh with huge attention and pressure, the fine might have been 10x that, because perception costs would have been higher.

 

[scojer]

http://fortune.com/2017/09/06/verizon-tracking-supercookies/

The saga continues:

A federal appeals court in California ruled on Tuesday that an ad company responsible for so-called "zombie" or "supercookies"—bits of code that tracked the location and browsing habits of Verizon customers—could not dodge a class action lawsuit by invoking arbitration rules in the phone company's contracts

 

[Master_shake_]

That's it?
Wow what a punishment.

I'm sure Verizon has more money tied up in staples.