The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created an on-line tool that details the wealth of information a Web browser reveals, which can pose privacy concerns when used to profile users.. The EFF's Panopticlick tool takes just a few seconds to pluck out information that a Web browser divulges when visiting a Web site, such as a user's operating system, version numbers for plug-ins, system fonts and even screen size, color and depth. Taken together, that information is a unique fingerprint for a particular PC, which could be used to repeatedly identify a particular visitor a Web site, the EFF said. The EFF, which has campaigned against intrusive on-line advertising systems, warns that advertising companies are already using digital fingerprinting techniques, wrote Peter Eckersley, an EFF staff technologist, on the organization's blog. "They develop these methods in secret, and don't always tell the world what they've found," Eckersley wrote. "But this experiment will give us more insight into the privacy risk posed by browser fingerprinting and help web users to protect themselves." Panopticlick anonymously records a visitor's system configuration and then compares it to a database of five million other configurations. On Friday, the Panopticlick Web site said it had collected 188,394 browser fingerprints so far. The link for this article located at InfoWorld is no longer available. . Uncover how the EFF's Panopticlick application exposes the privacy threats associated with web browser identification techniques.. Privacy Tool, Digital Fingerprinting, Browser Profiling, EFF Project, Web Security. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Existing Internet privacy concerns stemming from online "profiling" and other e-business data mining activities are "trivial" compared to the privacy-related issues that will face the world in the years ahead, IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner has said. "What are the implications for . . . . Existing Internet privacy concerns stemming from online "profiling" and other e-business data mining activities are "trivial" compared to the privacy-related issues that will face the world in the years ahead, IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner has said. "What are the implications for individual privacy in a world where millions of people are driving Internet-enabled cars that have their movements monitored at all times? What happens to privacy for millions of people with Internet-enabled pacemakers?," Gerstner asked a crowd of 3,500 at an e-business conference in New York. "Forget about the debate over who has access to medical records. Who has access to real-time data on your heartbeat, blood pressure and cholesterol levels?" Gerstner asked. The link for this article located at ComputerUser is no longer available. . Existing Internet privacy concerns stemming from online 'profiling' and other e-business data mining. existing, internet, privacy, concerns, stemming, online, 'profiling', other, e-business, mining. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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