Zombie Resurrection: 'Supercookie' Case Not Dead Yet

In the US, a federal appellate court has decreed that ad technology company Turn must respond to new arguments raised by individuals in a lawsuit over privacy violations.

According to www.mediapost.com , New York residents Anthony Henson and William Cintron are seeking to vacate a trial judge's order sending the case to arbitration, raising issues which 'warrant an answer'. Turn has until September 6th to respond.

Turn's 'supercookies' could be reactivated - with resumption of targeted advertising - even after browsers elected to delete cookies, using 50-character alphanumeric strings inserted into headers in all unencrypted mobile traffic. The strings were also known for obvious reasons as 'zombie cookies'. Research by Stanford's Jonathan Mayer first brought the cookies to light in January 2015, at which Turn said it would cease the practice, but it was subsequently also challenged in California.

Turn succeeded in persuading judges to send the case for arbitration due to specific clauses in its agreement with its partner, telecoms giant Verizon, and it was the latter that was fined $1.35m by the FCC in connection with the practices, earlier this year.

The decision to send to arbitration has now been challenged. The new arguments state that the consumers' arbitration agreements were with Verizon, not Turn; and that any agreements between Turn and Verizon 'did not contemplate Turn secretly subverting users' efforts to protect their privacy and security'.

Web site: www.turn.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.