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<span class="date">May 17th, 2010 <a href="http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/05/13">http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/05/13</a></span>
<h1><a href="http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/05/13">Web
Browsers Leave 'Fingerprints' Behind as You Surf the Net</a></h1>
<h2>EFF Research Shows More Than 8 in 10 Browsers Have Unique,
Trackable Signatures</h2>
<p>San Francisco - New research by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) has found that an overwhelming majority of web browsers
have unique signatures -- creating identifiable "fingerprints" that
could be used to track you as you surf the Internet.</p>
<p>The findings were the result of an experiment EFF conducted with
volunteers who visited <a href="http://panopticlick.eff.org/" title="http://panopticlick.eff.org/">http://panopticlick.eff.org/</a>.
The website anonymously logged the configuration and version information
from each participant's operating system, browser, and browser plug-ins
-- information that websites routinely access each time you visit --
and compared that information to a database of configurations collected
from almost a million other visitors. EFF found that 84% of the
configuration combinations were unique and identifiable, creating unique
and identifiable browser "fingerprints." Browsers with Adobe Flash or
Java plug-ins installed were 94% unique and trackable.</p>
<p>"We took measures to keep participants in our experiment anonymous,
but most sites don't do that," said EFF Senior Staff Technologist Peter
Eckersley. "In fact, several companies are already selling products that
claim to use browser fingerprinting to help websites identify users and
their online activities. This experiment is an important reality check,
showing just how powerful these tracking mechanisms are."</p>
<p>EFF found that some browsers were less likely to contain unique
configurations, including those that block JavaScript, and some browser
plug-ins may be able to be configured to limit the information your
browser shares with the websites you visit. But overall, it is very
difficult to reconfigure your browser to make it less identifiable. The
best solution for web users may be to insist that new privacy
protections be built into the browsers themselves.</p>
<p>"Browser fingerprinting is a powerful technique, and fingerprints
must be considered alongside cookies and IP addresses when we discuss
web privacy and user trackability," said Eckersley. "We hope that
browser developers will work to reduce these privacy risks in future
versions of their code."</p>
<p>EFF's paper on Panopticlick will be formally presented at the Privacy
Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2010) in Berlin in July.</p>
<p>For the full white paper: How Unique is Your Web Browser?:<br>
<a href="https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf" title="https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf">https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf</a></p>
<p>For more details on Pantopticlick:<br>
<a href="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/05/every-browser-unique-results-fom-panopticlick" title="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/05/every-browser-unique-results-fom-panopticlick">http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/05/every-browser-unique-results-fom-pa...</a></p>
<p>For more on online behavioral tracking:<br>
<a href="http://www.eff.org/issues/online-behavioral-tracking" title="http://www.eff.org/issues/online-behavioral-tracking">http://www.eff.org/issues/online-behavioral-tracking</a></p>
<p>Contacts:</p>
<p>Peter Eckersley<br>
Senior Staff Technologist<br>
Electronic Frontier Foundation<br>
<a href="mailto:pde@eff.org">pde@eff.org</a></p>
<p class="topics">Related Issues: <a class="topicsitem" href="http://www.eff.org/issues/online-behavioral-tracking">Online
Behavioral Tracking</a></p></div></div>