Communications of the ACM
Leakage of Private Information From Popular Websites Is Common, New Study Finds
Courtesy of mochadad.com
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers recently conducted a study of more than 100 popular Web sites and found that about 75 percent of them directly leak either private information or users' unique identifiers to third-party tracking sites.
The researchers, led by WPI professor Craig Wills, demonstrated how the leaks, such as email addresses, physical addresses, and the configuration of a user's Web browser, could enable tracking sites to create detailed profiles on individuals. The researchers also say that previous legislative and regulatory efforts to stop the leaks of personal information would be mostly ineffective.
"With the growing disconnect between the existing and proposed privacy protection measures and the increasing and increasingly worrisome linkage of personal information from all sorts of Web sites, we believe it is time to move beyond what is clearly a losing battle with third-party aggregators and examine what roles first-party sites can play in protecting the privacy of their users," Wills says.
The researchers focused on sites that encourage users to register, since most registration processes require users to submit personal information. The study also examined different techniques Web users can employ to prevent their information from being leaked, such as blocking cookies or using an advertising blocking tool, but found that these techniques miss some types of leakage.
From Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information Inc. 
, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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