Ever since third party browser cookies began to be used to track people across the Internet, and privacy concerns were voiced en masse, web browsers have been providing privacy protection features. Many people take their online privacy for granted, or just don't think about it. But for those of us who value privacy, these tools have been essential.
Some of these web browser features include hiding your network IP address, disallowing third party cookies, masking the browser information sent to servers, third party ad and social media widget blocker plugins (e.g. uBlock Origin), browser fingerprinting protection, and more.
A side benefit of these tools and features is that they can dramatically speed up web browsing, since they block a fair amount of code that is typically only used for advertising purposes. And blocking that code can make you safer online. All that advertising code has a tendency to make you more vulnerable to nefarious exploits.
Not so fast. Enter the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). According to the nonprofit, we're not even close to giving people proper control over their online privacy and tracking prevention.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.
To prove their point, and to provide a valuable service to users, they created the Cover Your Tracks website (https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/).
With a button click you can run a test on your web browser to determine how well it is blocking trackers and whether it can be fingerprinted, and how badly.
Browser fingerprinting is a technique websites use to identify and track users by collecting unique characteristics of their web browser and device (like screen size). This allows websites to identify users even without relying on traditional tracking methods like cookies.
You will be amazed at how much information can be gathered about your web browser and device using incredibly creative tricks. The goal is for the tracking company to gather "bits" of information about you. The more bits, the more unique you become. For example, your display size represents a few bits of uniquely identifiable information. Your display color depth are a few more. The way your browser renders graphics pixels provides bits of information about your graphics hardware. Even the list of fonts available on your computer provide bits of information for your fingerprint. And that's just the beginning.
All of these bits of information combined increase your uniqueness among everyone else they track. You could end up being unique in 1 in 100,000 people, or worse, 1 in 100. Either way you're in a cohort that can easily be tracked and marketed to across the Internet.
One interesting thing I discovered was that by enabling Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection in Safari, advertisers were able to create a more unique fingerprint because fewer people use that feature, which, ironically, is a valuable "bit" of information for my browser fingerprint!
So, even if you're not a privacy buff or concerned with tracking, it's really interesting to use the EFF Cover Your Tracks tool to see how these companies track you, and how private your browsing truly is.
There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!
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