Slashdot Mirror
76% of Web Users Affected By Browser History Stealing
An anonymous reader writes "Web browser history detection with the CSS:visited trick has been known for the last ten years, but recently published research suggests that the problem is bigger than previously thought. A study of 243,068 users found that 76% of them were vulnerable to history detection by malicious websites. Newer browsers such as Safari and Chrome were even more affected, with 82% and 94% of users vulnerable. An average of 63 visited locations were detected per user, and for the top 10% of users the tests found over 150 visited sites. The website has a summary of the findings; the full paper (PDF) is available as well."
76% are vulnerable, it hasn't been demonstrated that someone is using this technique for nefarious purposes (or at least, effectively using it, maybe some nerd somewhere sniffed some peoples browser history).
Then there is the part where finding out someone used Facebook, Yahoo and Google doesn't tell you much. I suppose, knowing they Google'd for prostitutes would be of some use, but good luck constructing that exact url.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"A study of 243,068 users found that 76% of them were vulnerable to history detection by malicious websites."
Vulnerable != affected