[Steko]

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 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...

"I think in some ways it’s more privacy protective because it’s all within one company,” said Verizon’s (chief privacy officer) Zacharia"

Good to know she's looking out for our interests.

[sslalready]

I think this happens pretty much everywhere a mobile carrier can profit from selling data about who's doing what. For example, Norwegian company Mobiletech.no has API access to the largest, Nordic mobile carriers' billing gateways and can turn an IP address:port pair from an HTTP/HTTPS connection into a MSISDN, sometimes with additional subscriber details. They're working with advertisers and analytics companies to help them count mobile subscribers instead of unreliable, cookie-based visitors. Similarly, mobile carriers in Denmark have been caught injecting HTTP request headers which leaked the subscriber's phone number, phone model, etc to arbitrary web sites. In Sweden, someone used a similar service to blackmail visitors who watched porn.

[Steko]

We only hear about this in mobile but I presume Comcast, Time Warner and friends do the same thing for broadband users, or is there some regulation that stands in their way?

For that matter I've always wondered why the tv industry pays so much for inaccurate Nielson data (sometimes still based on diaries) when presumably the cable providers have much more accurate data for many more users.

[kalleboo]

Because Nielsen gives them numbers they like. I'm sure the real data proves to advertisers exactly how few people really watch TV ads rather than skip/change channels/mute etc.

[Steko]

If so presumably the cable companies also know the networks are scared of seeing how many people flip channels during commercials and so they would package the data into larger chunks to hide this.

[hsivonen]

How is that legal in the European Economic Area?