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Tor Users Can Be Tracked Based On Their Mouse Movements (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The way you move your mouse is unique, like fingerprints, and can be used by dark forces to track you on supposedly anonymous and secure networks like Tor, according to a Barcelona researcher. Because the Tor Project has failed to address a ten-month-old issue regarding "time measurement via JavaScript," there are a series of user fingerprinting techniques that are quite accurate at identifying users based on their mouse movements, scrolling speed, and how their browser and hardware reacts to certain JavaScript code. If a user visits a "fingerprinting" website via Tor and then via a normal browser, an attacker can have a general idea about their identity and can even pinpoint them to real IPs. The data that is usually logged in fingerprinting schemes is not 100% reliable or accurate for that matter, but it provides a starting point for future investigations.
This one of the reasons why they should have never left noscript off by default.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
I would imagine trackpads are vulnerable to the exact same fingerprinting techniques. browser priority is unlikely to have any significant effect on timing and tracking of these events and it would be an absolute pain in the arse.
Yeah but if you're not on Tor, you're not doing anything illegal and you're not worried about tracking of that sort because normally of course the remote server knows your IP and everything, and there are a zillion potential logs or whatever in the middle.
If you're on Tor for free speech, of course you don't care because you're not there for privacy; you're there to disguise your activities from local observation of the network. You already have to trust the remote server not to tattle to your government in that case.