In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had pledged to give Internet users the power to decide if or when websites were allowed to track their behavior called the ‘Do Not Track’ initiative.

This concept allowed a user to opt out of letting any of their online data to be tracked and found by anyone on the Internet. Similar to the ‘Do Not Call’ initiative of 2007, today we still do not see the ‘Do Not Track’ initiative doing what the FTC pledged it would.

Where did the FTC go wrong?

Standard Never Finalized – 5 years later and the industry group have not finalized a standard for how ‘Do Not Track’ would work. Even those working with them to finalize this have given up their efforts.

Relied on Powerful Internet Companies – The FTC relied on Powerful Internet Companies such as Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. These businesses want to track a user’s information for the use of the online advertising they depend on.

Unfair Set of Rules – Eventually a team proposed a set of rules last August that let these powerful Internet companies track their consumers as long as they did not pass it along to any third parties. This caused those third party companies to feel they had an unfair competitive disadvantage. In October the proposal was re-examined.

Loss of Help – Companies such as The Digital Advertising Alliance, Consumer, Watchdog, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many more all gave up the efforts that the working group would come to a solution.

Mobile Browser Tracking

Verizon Users

Since 2012, Verizon gives this tracked information to marketing companies that send out targeted advertisements based on your browser habits. The process Verizon uses to collect this data is called X-UDIH. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has become concerned about “what this technology allows others to find out about users’ web activity,”  because of how insecure and dangerous for privacy it is.

AT&T Users

Similar to Verizon the information AT&T collects is visible to third parties for targeted ads but they are testing a new way to track customers. They claim to be working on a privacy-protective measure on their tracking.

Want to test whether the X-UIDH header is injected into your traffic?
Visit lessonslearned.org/sniff or amibeingtracked.com/ over a cell data connection, not Wifi

What Kind of Information is Being Collected

Web browsers collect 2 different types of cookies. First-Party cookies – information stored on directly on that site, and Third-Party cookies – information outside companies use to place targets ads corresponding to your browser habits based on articles you read and things you have searched.

First-Party cookies include:

Third-Party cookies include:

• Browsing History
• Searches through search Engines
  ie. Google.com
• Search result from other sites
  ie. Amazon.com

Browser cookies can also store your name, home address, and telephone number only if you provide it.

Social Media information such as your name, friend list, and even more personal information can be tracked by third parties.

How to Block Tracking

Visit our online privacy article to learn more on ways to prevent data collections and online spying