Browser Fingerprinting. What Is It and What Should You Do About It?

A guest post from the Pixel Privacy Blog.  

Read the original post here

 

Have you ever heard of browser fingerprinting? It’s okay if you haven’t, since almost nobody else has ever heard of it, either.

Browser fingerprinting is an incredibly accurate method of identifying unique browsers and tracking online activity.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to wipe all of your fingerprints from the internet. But first, let’s start by exploring what, exactly, browser fingerprinting is.

Browser Fingerprinting: What Is It?

Browser fingerprinting is defined on Wikipedia as follows:

“A device fingerprint, machine fingerprint or browser fingerprint is information collected about a remote computing device for the purpose of identification. Fingerprints can be used to fully or partially identify individual users or devices even when cookies are turned off.”

That means that, when you connect to the internet on your laptop or smartphone, your device will hand over a bunch of specific data to the receiving server about the websites you visit.

Browser fingerprinting is a powerful method that websites use to collect information about your browser type and version, as well as your operating system, active plugins, timezone, language, screen resolution and various other active settings.

These data points might seem generic at first and don’t necessarily look tailored to identify one specific person. However, there’s a significantly small chance for another user to have 100% matching browser information. Panopticlick found that only 1 in 286,777 other browsers will share the same fingerprint as another user.

Websites use the information provided by browsers to identify unique users and track their online behavior. This process is therefore called “browser fingerprinting.”

Continue reading → Browser Fingerprinting. What Is It and What Should You Do About It?

Essential Apple Podcast 149: “Let’s Talk” … to Bart Busschots

After a couple of weeks or more of guests and not bothering to look at the news Simon is joined by Bart Busschots of the Let’s Talk podcasts, Taming the Terminal, Programming by Stealth, Nosillacast and more, to poke a stick at a few things that caught their interest over the last couple of weeks. Including the Checkm8 vulnerability, and a video from the Apple archive that is an absolute gem.
Also in case you missed it last time BeLight Software kindly gifted us four licences for Amadine to give away last week so get your entries in for your chance to win a copy!

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • We have four licences for BeLight’s new vector application Amadine to give away. Email the show on essentialapple@sudomail.com to put your name in the hat. Winners will be announced in 3 weeks time!
  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has started up a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 149: “Let’s Talk” … to Bart Busschots

Internet Privacy Review 2019

A Guest Posting by Alex Grant of BestVPN.orgBestVPN.org Logo 1 Internet Privacy Review 2019

Original article here

Internet usage is growing by the day. As usage grows, so does the amount of information shared. A lot of information is shared voluntarily. People create profiles for social media sites, join email lists and download white papers. With every interaction, data is voluntarily given.

Meanwhile, more aggressive marketing tactics like tracking website behavior is becoming all too popular. In an attempt to show customers relevant ads, companies monitor clicks, identify trends and create targeted ad campaigns. Companies using data for advertising purposes is one thing, but personal data is a goldmine for hackers. From email phishing scams to ransomware, there are a number of threats that make personal data like passwords, bank accounts and credit card numbers, vulnerable.

Internet privacy is one of the fastest growing concerns among online users.

Research shows that 68% of users are concerned about not knowing how their personal information is collected online and used. And concern is only growing. Forty-five percent of consumers are more worried about their online privacy than they were a year ago, according to TrustArc

The state of internet privacy is an important topic, which is why we’ve created this guide to discuss privacy concerns, explore solutions and present an Internet Privacy Index that ranks the internet privacy of 100+ countries.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

  • Global use of the internet
  • Internet Privacy Index
  • Cybercrime legislation
  • Data privacy for consumers
  • Patchwork legislation makes data privacy difficult
  • Consumer efforts to protect customer data

Continue reading → Internet Privacy Review 2019

ProtonVPN: How to protect your personal data on public Wi-Fi

Airports, cafes, hotels – we are surrounded by free hotspots. While they are convenient, if you are not careful, public WiFi connections can put your device and personal data at risk to hackers. Here are some steps you can take to secure your connection and your personal data.

We have all done it: connected to a free public WiFi network we did not know to check emails, read the news, or scroll Instagram. What we often do not think about is that the same convenience that makes public WiFi so easy to use is also what makes it so attractive to hackers. Since most public WiFi services lack a strong password, they are vulnerable to a number of techniques that hackers can use to observe your online activity, collect your personal and financial data, or even break into your device.

Continue reading → ProtonVPN: How to protect your personal data on public Wi-Fi

Essential Apple Podcast 102: It goes through a LOT of cheese!

This week I am joined once again by Mark. We do our best to avoid all the rumours and speculation about the upcoming (yet to be officially announced) Apple autumn event and exactly what hardware etc will be released to focus on “actual stories” but somehow we end up at Business Insider and Mark loses his cool over one of their stories…
Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter! We can now also be found on Spotify, Soundcloud and even YouTube.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 102: It goes through a LOT of cheese!

Essential Apple Podcast 77: It’s About Privacy and Security

This week Essential Apple Slacker @Dougee (Andi J), digital forensics expert, joins us to talk about security, privacy, protecting yourself online, etc.
Also, of course, we take a look at the Apple and Tech stories of note from the last week or so, including Apple’s China iCloud dilemma, painful problems at Apple Campus and more.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 77: It’s About Privacy and Security

Essential Apple Podcast 76: In Conversation with Jeff Gamet of TMO

This week saw another deadly school shooting in the US and whilst we don’t want to dwell on that event we felt it appropriate to just mention our horror and sorrow at another senseless tragedy.
Meanwhile we are joined by the esteemed Jeff Gamet, Managing Editor at The Mac Observer and co-host of the Apple Context Machine Podcast to talk about the HomePod, “white-ring gate”, Twitter killing its Mac client and more.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 76: In Conversation with Jeff Gamet of TMO

Hulu In The Uk

HideIPVPN Review: View TV from Anywhere To Anywhere

HideIPVPN is a VPN and SmartDNS service provider that makes your traffic appear to originate from the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany or Canada. So if you wanted to watch USA Netflix, Hulu from anywhere but the USA, HideIPVPN does just that.  In fact if you face any region blocks at all, HideIPVPN gets around them fuss free

Continue reading → HideIPVPN Review: View TV from Anywhere To Anywhere