Leakage of Private Information from Popular Websites is Common, New Study Finds

A study of more than 100 popular websites used by tens of millions of people has found that three quarters directly leak either private information or users' unique identifiers to third-party tracking sites.



The study, co-authored by Craig Wills, professor of computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), also demonstrated how the leakage of private information by many sites, including email addresses, physical addresses, and even the configuration of a user's web browser—so-called browser fingerprints—could permit tracking sites to link many disparate pieces of information, including browsing histories contained in tracking cookies and the contents of searches on health and travel sites, to create detailed profiles of individuals. 
  

Photo: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The study presented last week at the Web 2.0 Security and Privacy conference in Oakland, Calif., concluded that efforts made to date to curb the leakage of personal information from websites and online social networking suites, including proposals made in a 2010 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on protecting consumer privacy, would be largely ineffective in preventing the identified leakage and linkage. They asserted that websites need to take greater responsibility for privacy protection. 

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Source: Worcester Polytechnic Institute