WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic senators on Friday called on federal regulators to investigate Verizon Wireless, the country’s biggest mobile provider, for secretly inserting unique tracking codes into the Web traffic of its some 100 million customers.
Data privacy experts have accused Verizon of violating consumers’ privacy by using “supercookies,” an identifying string of letters and numbers attached to each site visited on a person’s mobile device.
“This whole supercookie business raises the specter of corporations being able to peek into the habits of Americans without their knowledge or consent,” said Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, in a statement.
Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Debra Lewis said the company “takes our customers’ privacy seriously” and that it planned to respond to Nelson’s letter to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission. The company had announced last week it would give customers the chance to opt out of the tracking program.
The FCC and FTC did not respond to questions on whether they would conduct a review. The FCC regulates the telecommunications industry, while the FTC investigates consumer complaints based on unfair or deceptive business practices. The agencies typically do not acknowledge investigations until they are complete and only if wrongdoing is found.