How net neutrality rules can fix Verizon’s supercookie problem

The Federal Communications Commission is on the cusp of proposing new rules for the Internet, and it may have a chance to kill two birds with one stone: along with preserving so-called “network neutrality,” the rules, if the FCC reclassifies broadband access as a Title II telecommunications service, could serve to stop the use of “supercookies” that phone carriers like Verizon are using to track their wireless subscribers.

Verizon’s support for supercookies could one day lead to class-action lawsuits, as some have suggested. The Title II designation is the only legal avenue the agency can use to stop broadband companies from favoring some websites over others, but it also contains important authority for the FCC to protect privacy.