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Tracking Browsers Without Cookies Or IP Addresses?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-how-private-are-you dept.

Peter Eckersley writes "The EFF has launched a research project called Panopticlick, to determine whether seemingly innocuous browser configuration information (like User Agent strings, plugin versions and fonts) may create unique fingerprints that allow web users to be tracked, even if they limit or delete cookies. Preliminary results indicate that the User Agent string alone has 10.5 bits of entropy, which means that for a typical Internet user, only one in about 1,500 (2 ^ 10.5) others will share their User Agent string. If you visit Panopticlick, you can get a reading of how rare or unique your browser configuration is, as well as helping EFF to collect better data about this problem and how best to defend against it." I remember laughing years ago when I would see users who had modified their user agent string with some sort of defiant pro-privacy message, without realizing that their action made them uniquely identifiable out of hundreds of thousands of others.

2 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. The site is down already? Thanks, MySQL. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait


    Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'db' (4) in /www/panopticlick.eff.org/docs/config/db.inc.php on line 3

    Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) in /www/panopticlick.eff.org/docs/config/db.inc.php on line 4

    Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: A link to the server could not be established in /www/panopticlick.eff.org/docs/config/db.inc.php on line 4

    Well, I suppose that's what you get for using a shitty database like MySQL.

  2. Re:I get this ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I'm going to send this link to my boss, now that MySQL has crapped its pants.

    For the past few months we've been trying to get him to allow us to move some of our databases over to PostgreSQL, from Oracle. But he's been reading some white papers and crap like that about how MySQL is supposedly better.

    As an experienced DBA, I know that isn't true by a longshot. And as the Slashdotting of this site shows, MySQL is an inferior database unable to handle real-world loads. Hopefully my boss will come to realize this, too.

    Thanks, EFF. You may have just helped the world avoid another MySQL deployment.