EFF Says Forget Cookies, Your Browser Has Fingerprints 175
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the you-are-not-unique dept.
from the you-are-not-unique dept.
alphadogg writes "Even without cookies, popular browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox give websites enough information to get a unique picture of their visitors about 94 percent of the time, according to research compiled over the past few months by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. [The Research] puts quantitative assessment on something that security gurus have known about for years, said Peter Eckersley, the EFF senior staff technologist who did the research. He found that configuration information — data on the type of browser, operating system, plugins, and even fonts installed — can be compiled by websites to create a unique portrait of most visitors. This means that most Internet users are a lot less anonymous than they believe, Eckersley said. 'Even if you turn off cookies and you use a proxy to hide your IP address, you could still be tracked,' he said."
Re:Personally Identifiable Information (Score:5, Funny)
In other words its not that they know what I do, its do they know, specifically, who I am
Bruce Wayne: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
Re:I'm not really worried (Score:5, Funny)
Excellent plan.
Re:damn. (Score:5, Funny)
true,
but you're still boned if you're the only furry in the office.
Re:Don't worry (Score:5, Funny)
Which is why I have a linux script that constantly changes the size of my browser window by a couple pixels.