Banks, retailers and advertisers can track your online activity using Web fingerprinting techniques, but these methods usually only work across a single browser. Now, however, new technology can follow you anywhere online — even if you switch browsers.
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The new tech makes it possible to establish a unique online fingerprint based not on browser features but on features of a user’s operating system and computer hardware, according to a new study by researchers at Lehigh University and Washington University. The cross-browser fingerprinting technique identifies users with an accuracy of 99.24 percent, compared to AmIUnique’s state-of-the-art accuracy of 90.84 percent across a single browser, according to the researchers.
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While acknowledging the fingerprinting method could be used for undesirable purposes that violate online privacy, the researchers said the technique could also help service providers authenticate users for improved security.
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Tracking Tech Evolving Fast
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In their paper, researchers Yinzhi Cao and Song Li of Lehigh University and Erik Wijmans of Washington University in St. Louis described their cross-browser fingerprinting technique as the first to use many novel OS and hardware features, especially computer graphics ones to establish identities and track individual online users. They provided both a working demo and open source code online.
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Web tracking is a debatable technique used to remember and recognize past website visitors, the researchers noted. On the one hand, web tracking can authenticate users — and particularly a combination of different web tracking techniques can be used for multifactor authentication to strengthen security. On the other hand, web tracking can also be used to deliver personalized service — if the service is undesirable, e.g., some unwanted, targeted ads, such tracking is a violation of privacy.
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Whether people like it or not, Web tracking technology is widely used and evolving quickly, the researchers added, noting that more than 90 [percent] of…