Verizon is giving a new mission to its controversial hidden identifier that tracks users of mobile devices. Verizon said in a little-noticed announcement that it will soon begin sharing the profiles with AOL’s ad network, which in turn monitors users across a large swath of the Internet. That means AOL’s ad network will be able to match millions of Internet users to their real-world details gathered by Verizon, including — “your gender, age range and interests.” AOL’s network is on 40 percent of websites, including on ProPublica. AOL will also be able to use data from Verizon’s identifier to track the apps that mobile users open, what sites they visit, and for how long. Verizon purchased AOL earlier this year.

Credit for this one goes to ProPublica's Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson And to make it even more fun, the tracking sends the information without encryption—which means that Verizon and AOL might not be the only ones culling it. Verizon admits to sharing the identifier with "a very limited number of other partners and they will only be able to use it for Verizon and AOL purposes." That should be of great comfort to anyone who trusts Verizon's judgment about the use of what they might have thought was their personal information. Verizon, of course, has gone to bizarre lengths in its efforts to end net neutrality

It shouldn't be a surprise that Verizon opts its customers into the tracking by default, but the good news is that it's easy to opt out. This probably explains why the announcement of the merged tracking was so little-noticed. To opt out, a simple automated menu can be reached at:



866-211-0874

Tell any Verizon customers you know. Let them decide for themselves.