EP031

Private Web Surfing

 
Music provided by: Denis Kreynin https://soundcloud.com/denis-kreynin

There are many implications when people are having their mobile traffic monitored, and it turns out that a handful of mobile carriers were doing just that. The story that brought this all to light was that Verizon was tracking people by inserting a Unique IDentification Header (UIDH) in the requests to get certain webpages for all web browser traffic it could. There’s a great summary of the activity at https://www.wired.com/2014/10/verizons-perma-cookie/

You can check if your carrier is inserting invisible tracking headers by visiting https://lessonslearned.org/sniff on a smartphone connected to the cellular network. Please note that headers aren’t inserted if you’re connected to a wifi hotspot. At the top of the page it says which cellular carriers are known to insert UIDH-like headers.

References:
Another perspective on the tracking headers
Why your privacy matters, even if your not doing anything wrong
What is TOR (The Onion Router)
Benefits and drawbacks of TOR
HTTPS Everywhere for mobile phones (android)