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A New Form of Online Tracking: Canvas Fingerprinting

Posted by Unknown on from the subverting-features-for-evil-and-profit dept.

New submitter bnortman (922608) was the first to write in with word of "a new research paper discussing a new form of user fingerprinting and tracking for the web using the HTML 5 <canvas> ." globaljustin adds more from an article at Pro Publica: Canvas fingerprinting works by instructing the visitor's Web browser to draw a hidden image. Because each computer draws the image slightly differently, the images can be used to assign each user's device a number that uniquely identifies it. ... The researchers found canvas fingerprinting computer code ... on 5 percent of the top 100,000 websites. Most of the code was on websites that use the AddThis social media sharing tools. Other fingerprinters include the German digital marketer Ligatus and the Canadian dating site Plentyoffish. ... Rich Harris, chief executive of AddThis, said that the company began testing canvas fingerprinting earlier this year as a possible way to replace cookies ...

4 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Is that what it is come down to? by thieh · · Score: 3, Funny

    Skipping all images to avoid tracking? Back to ncurses it is then

    1. Re:Is that what it is come down to? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      They're already tracking you by your termcap.

  2. Re: So by plover · · Score: 4, Funny

    Noooo! Don't mention /etc/hosts, lest you summon ... him.

    --
    John
  3. Re: And this ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    NSA Guy 1: Hey, there's that one guy that shows up as a black hole on the Internet.
    NSA Guy 2: He is up a little early, isn't he?
    NSA Guy 1: Yeah, he usually doesn't post his slashdot privacy rants until after browsing those "furry" sites for a half hour or so.
    NSA Guy 2: He must not be in the mood.