Are you being watched online? Even more, than you think. Some sites even manage to get your computer the energy level remaining in your battery.
The million most popular websites of the English-speaking world: this is what sifted through a custom tool created by two researchers from Princeton University to detect the information these sites collect their visitors - and even information they share without informing their visitors. This data collection is used for sites to offer targeted advertising or personalized.
But the analysis by Steven Englehardt and Arvind Narayanan to discover a list of information much longer than is generally known, and in some strange ways: for example, the rate at which your browser, such as Safari or Chrome , displays an image, what fonts it appears, or how it processes sound. This information and others, including those on the battery, are supposed to provide the website you visit the equivalent of your "fingerprint", hoping to send you advertisements increasingly targeted or even customize increasing the information that appears on your screen.
Uninformed Users
However, the researchers observed that duo, most of the time, the user is not notified of the fact that collects information about it, much less that such information is often shared with a third party. If such third party: Google Analytics, found on 70% of sites, followed by DoubleClick, to 50%. Double Click also belongs to Google ...
And where these "spies" are the most numerous? On news sites. The fewer? Universities, government sites ... and adult sites.
A technical note: according to the researchers, the existence of these spies the third party has helped to prevent the development of standards HTTPS safer connection. Because a website that uses a secure connection standard too could not have spies a third party who would reap the data home - data needed to sell advertising.
Englehardt Narayanan and conclude on the fact that this analysis is only the first step of a working longer breath. They want to develop a tool that would allow the user's browser to detect the "spies" and classify according to the type of information that each of us is willing to pass up ...
Metadata That Speak Volumes
Stanford University researchers are sounding the alarm after successfully deduce very personal information from metadata
Governments should suspend collection of programs for monitoring the metadata produced by the so-called smartphones of every citizen now connected, said a group of scientists from Stanford University in the United States.
hand study, they conclude that this technical information related to our online exchanges allow to draw up profiles to specific lifestyles, social relations, as well as personal and social concerns of the owners of these phones, and, of manner inconsistent with the claims of intelligence services around the world as in Canada. These organizations enjoy legal frameworks promoting the collection of metadata and swear not to enter into the intimacy of people solely on the basis of the technical data.
" I was amazed at the ease with which we were able to obtain sensitive information about people " , summarized Patrick Mutchler, computer security specialist and co-author of the analysis, details of which have just been published in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ).
Bonds gun and heart problems
digital socialization traces are not to be taken lightly. To reach this conclusion, scientists from Stanford University have installed an application in phones than 800 volunteers to monitor their digital exchanges, which generated 250,000 calls and 1.2 million text messages. Analysis of metadata, including the number of the caller and the person called, the time of the call, the physical location, the serial number of the device, the number of the calling card, but also information shared in social networks through these devices, allowed to clearly identify the relationship between individuals and their concerns. The researchers concluded, inter alia, that the participants had heart problems, another had a gun, and showed couples or lovers, solely on the basis of these data that have apparently , a very technical dimension.
" Metadata phones are densely interconnected, easily re-identifiable and indicate clearly the location, the relationships, and interactions of a susceptible individual , it said in the study. The metadata is today in the heart of intelligence strategies not always effective. The results of our research should encourage decision makers to suspend or not to authorize such programs. "
In addition to the public, within the framework of the monitoring programs, several private companies also collect such data through gaming applications, services or news downloaded to the phones. This analysis also confirms that one person peering metadata, it is possible to monitor several hundred others who are in their circles of relationships.
In Canada, the Commissioner for the Protection of Privacy warns regularly public and private organizations against " the extent of the information that metadata can reveal about a person " and invited them to handle with care .
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