They lurch along, eyes blank, unkillable, hungry for your personal information: The Verizon zombie cookies worked in darkness, until ProPublica published a story about them on Jan. 14. The thing was, even if a user cleared the cookies, they were reborn; they rose from the grave. Edgar Allan Poe could have written it!
According to PC Magazine, a cookie is a “small text file created by a Web site you visit that is stored on your computer ... Cookies provide a way for the Web site to recognize you and keep track of your preferences.” They help advertisers send you targeted ads, and help pages load properly for a user. All this is efficient and helpful, but there are times when a person would like to be anonymous on the web. A dread zombie cookie did not allow that. It would recreate itself and reappear, associated with a device-specific UIDH (Unique ID Header), in English, with your Verizon cell phone or tablet. According to ProPublica, Verizon and AT&T users complained that the UIDH could track all their web activities on a certain device.
The Verizon zombie cookies came from “a method Turn uses to deliver tailored advertising to mobile browsers,” according to Max Ochoa, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at Turn, an online ad company.
Death to Verizon Zombie Cookies!
They lurch along, eyes blank, unkillable, hungry for your personal information: The Verizon zombie cookies worked in darkness.
A Verizon Wireless retail store at Downtown Crossing in Boston on June 4, 2014. Verizon launched a loyalty program in June 2014. To earn points for spending, subscribers had to consent to have their movements tracked to help the company target ads. AP Photo/Charles Krupa
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A cookie is a "small text file created by a Web site you visit that is stored on your computer.
Mary Silver
Author
Mary Silver writes columns, grows herbs, hikes, and admires the sky. She likes critters, and thinks the best part of being a journalist is learning new stuff all the time. She has a Masters from Emory University, serves on the board of the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and belongs to the Association of Health Care Journalists.
