Should we ban all analytics software (e.g. Google Analytics)?
Or should we regulate how analytics software handles data instead?
The Underpants Project
51–60 of 87 posts
Re: The Underpants Project
#52What is the worst thing somebody can do with a fingerprint? Show you ads they think you will like?
It depends on what they are looking for. For example, a company could gather information about your browsing habits using advertising. If a company like Google distributes ads across a wide variety of sites, they can use your fingerprint to gather lots of information about your browsing habits.
This is scary not because it enables them to provide more relevant ads, but because it enables them to sell personal information to organizations like corporations and the government. Imagine your boss being able to buy a package that tells him what type of porn you like, how often you view porn, your most visited subreddits, etc.
And often from this information, these companies (based on aggregate data) can make more sweeping generalizations (that are often incorrect, but also often right on the mark) like income bracket, ethnicity, drug use habits, sexual orientation, etc. These approximations can also be bought.
Imagine that your 'package' has some information in it deducing that you regularly use cocaine. Even if this is not true and the person observing this information knows it might not be true, the fact that it has been stated might be enough to lose you some important opportunity.
I don't know how common it is for someone to buy this information, but I know that the information is already out there and the potential for things like this is very large.
Re: The Underpants Project
#53Should we ban all analytics software (e.g. Google Analytics)? Or should we regulate how analytics software handles data instead?
Easier: don't use your real identity online if you don't want to be tracked.
Re: The Underpants Project
#54It seems like the biggest information leak is installed fonts. If I install one extra font above the default for my OS, I am leaking a good deal of information:
https://panopticlick.eff.org/
Would it not make sense for my OS to sandbox which fonts can be accessed by my browser? If a webpage wants to use a special font-family, I could be prompted to allow/block access to my greater font library.
Re: The Underpants Project
#55> This technique can be used to find out some of the softwares installed on your system. For example I can say that you probably don't have Adobe Creative Suite installed. Sorry, I have CS3 installed and fully licensed. But still a nice demo.
the demo checks CS4 and CS5
Re: The Underpants Project
#56Failed spectacularly for me.
Re: The Underpants Project
#57[deleted]
Re: The Underpants Project
#58I really question the name of this. Underpants Project? I just don't get it. It doesn't really fit with the point you're trying to make, IMO.
It got us to click to link, didn't it? :)
Yeah, but at what cost? I already have an unfavorable view of it - just based on the name (that's human nature) - going into it. In this case, the project isn't really all that clear on what it does - I need to do a bunch of stuff to see it's benefit. I'm busy, I've lost interest. See the problem?
That's just my point of view, of course, but how many others will share it? I'd wager a good number would.
Re: The Underpants Project
#59I'm the (co)author of the project. Please note that it's just a one-day proof of concept, imagine what a well motivated corporation could do.
It's nothing new (someone correctly pointed the EFF project) but I wanted to make a real world demo out of it.
The demo doesn't store each bits of info separately, it simply creates an hash out of them. If I stored the data separately I could for example identify small user agent updates or screen resolution changes or newly installed plugins and so on.
Also, many of the info can be gathered without JS and actually browsing with NoJS puts you in a very restricted niche making you even more trackable ;)
The demo is far from perfect but I believe that even a 90% reliability is alarming. Anyway I'll put all the source code on Github for you to review. I hope to be able to add the NoScript code as well soon.
Re: The Underpants Project
#60sorry, it doesn't work. I saw different finger prints when accessed the link from a different machine and different ip address