In order to get a better read on user's interests, Verizon Wireless installed "perma-cookies" on smartphones, allowing the carriers to track what its customers are looking at on the mobile Web.

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It looks like Verizon Wireless is not working alone, AT&T, the second largest carrier in the U.S., is also working on bringing so-called "perma-cookies" to its phones. This will give the two largest carriers more legal might, if brought to court.

However, according to security analysts and email replies, both Sprint and T-Mobile do not engage in any type of perma-cookies feature. Neither does most of the major carriers in other nations either, including the UK, Germany, South Korea and Brazil.

Perma-cookies allow Verizon Wireless and AT&T to create databanks on what websites its customers view, search history, app downloads and other things. This will allow them to offer a profile to advertisers, if interests match, the user may see ads from carriers.

Carriers have plenty of reasons to try this out, the most important being Google's massive advertising business shadowing other services. This is not the first time AT&T and Verizon Wireless have tried to create new services or stop Google's own.

Having this profile of 200 million subscribers (combined) could make AT&T and Verizon Wireless millions every year in advertising sales, if the perma-cookies are approved by the FCC and other U.S. government departments, in charge of online security.

The collection of information is already done by Google in the form of search results, but using perma-cookies is a new idea, and will still need to be approved before monetized. For now, these cookies are collecting data for sampling.

TagsAT&T, Verizon wireless, perma cookies, advertising, T-Mobile, Sprint, U.S. carriers