Verizon fined $1.3M for supercookie header injection [pdf]
131b revenue in 2015. So, at 1.3m, a 0.001% fine, aka <i>half a minute of revenue.</i><p>Interestingly it doesn&#x27;t <i>directly</i> fix the problem either (although it wrecks the current free-profit model, yay!), <i>&quot;To settle this matter, Verizon Wireless will pay a fine of $1,350,000 and implement a compliance plan that requires it to obtain customer opt-in consent prior to sharing a customer’s UIDH with a third party to deliver targeted advertising&quot;</i><p>But lest anyone think this is a UIDH prohibition, the next line goes on to say customers must at least have the ability to opt-out from <i>internal</i> Verizon usage, meaning the UIDH will be there (unless the customer opts out) and that a persistent, unique identifier that follows the user wherever they go is permitted. This ruling is primarily about Verizon <i>sharing</i> the targeting information: Verizon is still permitted a persistent attack on their users, but they are now only permitted to sell customer data on an opt-in basis. Ad-networks will have to do their own tracking themselves for everyone else.<p>Hopefully Verizon&#x27;s profits from this schtick are shorn from this shift, to a degree where they give up this <i>disgraceful corpoate panopticon</i> they&#x27;ve been going to the bank on.