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not uncommon for paid services to also then sell customer data to selected third parties, to do
so without having full and frank disclosure is harder to take for consumers.

A clear and easy to find “opt out” is also normally expected. While Verizon does provide this opt-
out, is does not actually stop the injection from taking place, only the building of your unique
profile. In other words, you are still being tracked, but websites have to build their own profiles of
you.

Legally too, Verizon may be on shaky ground too. The Communications Act prohibits carriers
from giving up identifying information regarding their customers, or providing others with the
mean to do so. This is at the core of a possible lawsuit or action, said Nate Cardozo a lawyer for
the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Other legalities are also flagged up by the Federal Wiretap
Act. This Act is designed to stop personal communications being changed when data is
transmitted (without an attendant court or consent).

VPNs to the Rescue

Both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and private security specialists were quick to provide a
way round the Super Cookie; encryption. Since encrypted traffic cannot be altered so easily by
network carriers, using a Virtual Private Network offers an effective means to stop the header
injection.

While nearly all operating systems now have inbuilt VPN clients, the Verizon injection takes
place on their mobile network (no reports of this same tracking technique have been made for
the Verizon broadband network). This means that you need to form a VPN on your smartphone
or tablet; a far from easy or convenient proposition.

Use of the TOR network can also circumnavigate the problem. While you may be able to use
TOR on your mobile, most current implementations are difficult to use. In addition to this both
TOR and VPN will add at least some performance degradation to your connection. In the case
of using a commercial VPN provider there will also be additional cost.

About the Author

Patrick Lincoln is founder of Unified Communications Company Solution IP,
which he set up in 2006. An authority in the industry, he spent many of his
formative years building relationships within the telecoms community in the
South West of England. You can connect with Solution IP on Twitter or
Facebook.

52 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – November 2014 Edition
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