Tuesday, May 18, 2010

How your Web browser rats you out online


You're concerned about your online privacy, and you do all the right things to keep from being tracked around the Web: purge your cookies regularly, clean out Flash "supercookies," even switch to browsers like Browzar, which lets you "search and surf the web without leaving traces on your computer." Doesn't matter—your browser is giving you away.

Browsers can offer a window into a computer. The browser's "user-agent string" is visible to websites, for instance. So are "HTTP ACCEPT" headers. And it's simple to infer whether cookies are being blocked. In browsers with Javascript running, it's easy for websites to discover screen resolution, a list of all browser plugins, and the user's timezone. Throw in Flash, and it's possible to grab a complete list of system fonts.

Read the rest of this article...

Read the comments on this post




No comments:

Post a Comment