Browsers leave unique trail on the Internet

For users who think that disabling cookies is all that is necessary for maintaining their anonymity on the Internet, the truth is that users can still be tracked without it. This is because the Web browser freely divulges information such as operating system, plug-ins and their version numbers, installed system fonts, screen resolution and color depth. When used in tandem with other details such as geographical location--think IP addresses--the information can be used as a digital fingerprint to track a specific workstation.

To prove their point, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) created a tool called Panopticlick. At the moment, the Panopticlick Web site has collected more than 500,000 browser fingerprints to date when I visited. Indeed, I ran the test on the site, and it told me that my Chrome browser configuration is unique based on its database of fingerprints.

Pertaining to information found in the browser user string alone, Peter Eckersley, an EFF staff technologist wrote that "on average, only one person in about 1,500 will have the same User Agent as you." For users who want to maintain a higher degree of anonymity, the best non-disruptive solution appears to involve switching to a mobile browser.

The EFF noted that "Current versions of the iPhone, Android and Blackberries do not vary much with respect to plugins, installed fonts or screen size." I suppose you could count it as an additional selling point for the Apple iPad or the Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet.

For more on this story:
- here's the Computerworld article 

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