Your “anonymous” Browsing Data Is Not Very Anonymous
Even when you cover your tracks by opening a new incognito window, your web browsing history may not be as private as you might think. Information about what you do online, down to every URL, can most likely be bought online by anyone. And while most of the time people make these purchases for marketing reasons, they can also use their new knowledge maliciously.
Journalist Svea Eckert has teamed up with a data analyst to find out what personal data Internet users can buy. It turns out a lot.
The duo set up a fake marketing company with a fake website and job page, and then set out to buy information, in particular raw browsing history, on the pretext that they needed it to train an AI platform that would revolutionize marketing. They presented the project at DefCon, a hacking conference in Las Vegas, according to The Guardian .
They bought the anonymous viewing history of three million Germans. While some of them only had a handful of URLs listed, others had all of their browsing history, pornography and all to be seen. The team didn’t really even have to buy it – the data broker gave it to them for free. And while he was supposed to be anonymous, it was easy for them to figure out who some of the users were pretty quickly.
So how does it work?
The answer is pretty obvious if they explain it. Things like viewing your Twitter analytics page, for example, are a big sign that you are actually that person, as it is only available to you. The trick also works for the German site Xing.
For others, it was a little more difficult, but still quite easy. Think about how many people work for your company and view something like an internal HR page, and then filter it again by people who might be in your NextDoor group. Not too many people, right? With the correct URLs in the group, narrowing down the data owner’s circle isn’t too difficult.
As far as the German language data is concerned, most of it was collected from a browser add-on whose terms of use indicate that it sells data to it.
Takeaway: If you want to keep your browsing data private, never let anyone else have it. Even if it is sent to them anonymously, there is a good chance that it may be associated with you. And if you need help locking things down, here are some tips to keep your data – and yourself – safe.