Privacy alert: Verizon is now monitoring your mobile Web habits [telecom]

I once encountered a web page bearing a floating link that floated directly under wherever the mouse pointer happened to be positioned.

Thus, no way to click on any of the links on the page itself: any click would trigger that floatiing link. Only way out was to close that browser window -- [Ctrl]-[W] -- and never return :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.

***** Moderator's Note *****

I just wrote in my blog

about the underwhelming impression I got from the "My" verizon update site, and the insulting "No thanks, just go to 'My' Verizon" link that I had to click on to get past the ad they shoved in my face when I just wanted to go to the update page. Verizon discontinued ftp access to the personal web sites, supposedly for security reasons, but I think it's a cheap trick to hype their ad numbers - at the same time they alienate their customers.

Verizontal seems to have the same brain-dead executives running its online marketing that it chose to head the NYNEX retail effort. The signs are obvious: the "ActiveX should be good enough for all browsers" attitude, and the "We know what's best for you" arrogance, both still firmly entrenched in their monopoly mentality.

Bill Horne Moderator

Turn off java script.

Jon

Went there and opted out, but didn't see the "suggestions" box. I'm using Chrome, though.

I got the same message. When I saw this comment, I tried it right away, I had to see such crappiness myself. I didn't see what you saw at all, I got a fairly simple page (for them) with a small "Do not Participate" message with a checkbox on the right side. Nothing hovering blocking the mouse.

Also for the "Verizon Toolbar" request. I just see a thin box below the red menu bar at the top, and in fact it goes away by itself if I do nothing.

All this was Firefox 7.0.1, so I decided to see what IE did. It's pretty much the same with IE 8.

I don't know why I didn't get the annoyances you do. Maybe that's a feature of getting their FiOS?

***** Moderator's Note *****

I don't remember if I was running Ubuntu & Firefox or Windoze 7 & IE: I only use windows for my online banking as a rule, but I had an email that was causing Evolution to crash, and I may have gone to windows to test if it did the same thing in Thunderbird, and wound up answering Verizon's notice there.

Please pass along the URL so that others can test it: I don't have the email anymore. TIA.

Bill Horne Moderator

You'll need a Verizon login to see anything interesting, of course.

***** Moderator's Note *****

Thanks for sending that: I've uploaded a screen shot that shows what I just saw when I accessed the site. Of course, I already checked the box (using lynx), but the screenshot shows how the "Suggestions" link is in the way of the checkbox.

It's at

Bill Horne Moderator

+--------------- | ***** Moderator's Note ***** | Thanks for sending that: I've uploaded a screen shot that shows what I | just saw when I accessed the site. Of course, I already checked the | box (using lynx), but the screenshot shows how the "Suggestions" link is | in the way of the checkbox. | | It's at If you're using Firefox, you might try "View -> Page Style -> No Style" to turn off CSS for that page to see if that gets rid of the floater/popup.

I've had some success in using that to defeat overly-"smart" CSS that gets my window and/or screen size totally wrong and horribly misformats the page, e.g., using the "mobile" version for a non-mobile system and vice-versa. [Google News is particularly bad about that!] What you see with CSS turned off is itself quite horribly formatted, but at least most of the interesting/useful bits are usually *visible*. ;-}

-Rob

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ Rob Warnock 627 26th Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403

Interesting. I don't know why I don't see the "Suggestions" link blocking the mouse likee you do. I was going to suggest that in the past, I blocked some of the more annoying ad sites (setting their IP address to

127.0.0.1 in hosts) and maybe I got them, but no. I see the "Suggestions" link on my version of the page, behaving itself quietly in the lower right corner. It will change to read "Click here to rate this page" if I move the mouse pointer to it, but it never tries to follow the pointer or block anything.

I also tried it with an old version of Chrome, same thing. This is on the same computer, I'll have to try it on another one.