Tech | January 28, 2010 | 34 comments

Just by visiting this website, you reveal who you are

source: http://io9.com/5458479/just-by-visiting-this-website-you-reveal-who-you-are

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pjacobs51
Need another reason to be paranoid about companies and governments watching what you're doing online? A technology researcher has created a web tool that shows just how easy it is to identify you based on nothing more than a click.

Called Panopticlick, the tool comes from Electronic Frontier Foundation staff technologist Peter Eckersley. He wanted to show how easy it would be for a bad person - let's call her Eve - to identify you based entirely on information she gets when you visit her website. No, Eve isn't tricking you into filling out forms with personal information. And she's not shooting evil code into your computer from afar. All she's doing is looking over the data that almost any web host gathers from its visitors, which is to say: What kind of computer you have, what operating system it runs, what kind of browser you are using to surf the web, and what kinds of plugins you have on that browser.

Maybe you didn't know that most sites gather that data. Or maybe you did, but you always thought, "Who cares? That's not personal information." Unfortunately, it is.


Eckersley writes:

When you visit a website, you are allowing that site to access a lot of information about your computer's configuration. Combined, this information can create a kind of fingerprint - a signature that could be used to identify you and your computer.

In another essay, Eckersley explains how many pieces of unique data are required to identify someone - not very many, it turns out. As long as you have many unique properties to your computer configuration, our evil Eve could conceivably track you down without you ever knowing she was even trying to do it.


Want to find out how unique your browser fingerprint is? Eckersley says:

Our new website Panopticlick will anonymously log the configuration and version information from your operating system, your browser, and your plug-ins, and compare it to our database of five million other configurations. Then, it will give you a uniqueness score - letting you see how easily identifiable you might be as you surf the web.

My score didn't make me very happy. Apparently, my configuration is "unique among the 46,293 tested so far." My browser fingerprint "conveys at least 15.5 bits of identifying information." Great.

Luckily, there are solutions that will help protect your privacy, and EFF recommends several.

Please participate in the research by testing your browser on the Panopticlick site!


http://io9.com/5458479/just-by-visiting-this-website-you-reveal-who-you-are
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34 comments // Just by visiting this website, you reveal who you are

  • remanns
    • +1
      remanns  

    • AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!

      ME -
      Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 1,723,948 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 20.72 bits of identifying information.

    • 6 months ago
  • ryan8566
  • remanns
  • newinusa
    • 0
      newinusa  

    • i thought this article was about personality, you know like if you use IE you must have born between the 50's and the 80's, you probably use the so called "internet" only for checking email, and you are most likely a conformist for using such a slow web browser...

      i know, i know a lot of hate towards IE, but there are a lot of better alternatives regarding browsers, however, it's just my opinion

    • 2 years ago
  • mybodymyright
    • 0
      mybodymyright  

    • If you use the No Script plugin for Firefox the site can't run 5 of its tests (including what plugins you're running) and your fingerprint is much less unique.

      Turning on javascript takes me from:

      "Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors, only one in 1,334 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 10.38 bits of identifying information."

      to:

      "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 174,669 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 17.41 bits of identifying information."

      If this article really worries you, use No Script to disable javascript by default, and only enable it for sites you trust.

    • 2 years ago
  • dalistuff
    • 0
      dalistuff  

    • It's like a parking lot, you park your car but there's always a better one. Should we really worry if someone else might have better info than the poor slobs that surf the web 24/7 ?

    • 2 years ago
  • calm_incense
    • 0
      calm_incense  

    • Who gives a fuck how many bits of information they have on us?

      If someone sees you on the street, they know what you freakin' LOOK LIKE; they know where you are IN REAL LIFE; and they can follow you to your actual HOME. Surely that's more cause for concern than identifying that you visit Current, Facebook, and YouTube, and that you have a furry fetish and a thing for LOLcats.

    • 2 years ago
  • b1nhac64
    • 0
      b1nhac64  

    • now that you know all about me,did you know I'm looking for a hot Latino Male---30---to-45 year's old preferably--Cubano--or Dominicano or Colombiano or Ecuadorian???the rest of my info is on my pc,,,-have fun!

    • 2 years ago
  • animaladvocate
    • 0
      animaladvocate  

    • A few people have posted what the site said about their computer and it looks like all of them say there are at least 17. something bits of identifying information. That seems suspicious to me. Here's what is said for me that is very similar-almost exactly the same thing as the others who posted it here.

      Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 164,473 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 17.33 bits of identifying information.

    • 2 years ago
  • eternal_springs
  • eternal_springs
    • 0
      eternal_springs  

    • Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors, only one in 281 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 8.14 bits of identifying information.

    • 2 years ago
  • pukemnukem
    • 0
      pukemnukem  

    • Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors, only one in 284 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 8.15 bits of identifying information. WHOOO!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • cigarettezack
    • 0
      cigarettezack  

    • Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 160,953 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 17.3 bits of identifying information.

    • 2 years ago
  • Sexirobot
  • Guyatthebusstation
  • BrittanyL
  • thewarnerla
  • rebelution07
  • jdubsy
    • 0
      jdubsy  

    • Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 150,377 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 17.2 bits of identifying information.

      what does that even mean?

    • 2 years ago
  • brett_ferster
    • 0
      brett_ferster  

    • No kidding servers have access to your computer's configuration...that's nothing new. Also this truly isn't accessing anything remotely close to my personal information...

    • 2 years ago
  • Sam_the_Wizer
    • 0
      Sam_the_Wizer  

    • The information they retrieve isn't terribly useful for the most part. They can get your IP Address which can cause you more headaches if you're not well protected.

    • 2 years ago
  • existentialist
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  
    • existentialist:

      Not unless you change it to something no one else has, the majority of options are common to a lot of others also, most people just pick from a list of common used options so even if the configurations are a smaller statistic they are still shared by a fair number of others.

    • 2 years ago
  • antoine_99
    • 0
      antoine_99  

    • Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 134,047 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 17.03 bits of identifying information.

      Not good.

    • 2 years ago
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  

    • As they say the question is "Are you paranoid enough to survive?"

      Since the majority of computers sold have the same configuration and the majority of people who buy them rarely change that configuration then having a unique fingerprint isn't very likely in the majority of cases.

      That site was looking at some very general characteristics like browser type, system fonts, screen size and color depth and plugins like acrobat, media player and flash that are common configurations in most computers sold.

      The people that have very customized confirgurations also have the knowledge to encrypt their personal information.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      BE COOL every where I go boom There I am. Like some body is following me or something. I can't leave my house without being followed as it is. Now some one online is following me and knows who I am Thats just freaky. I have to water board my computer till it tells me who it is thats following me online. I knew this was a evil machine.

    • 2 years ago
  • lizziehoffman
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • Well, Mr 51,....how many folk did YOU THINK had a steam-powered one of a kind home build CPU running with a SeaMonkey browser with Chinese and Turkish language add-ons?

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • remanns:

      Hey I thought I was the only one with a home build CPU running with a SeaMonkey browser with Chinese and Turkish language add-ons. Does your require daily spankings also?

    • 2 years ago
  • pjacobs51
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • pjacobs51
  • inspirationseeker
    • 0
      inspirationseeker  

    • Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 98,127 tested so far.

      Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 16.58 bits of identifying information.

      Is 16.58 bits a lot?

    • 2 years ago
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