How to Avoid Online Tracking. (Hint: You Can’t.)

Internet Open Tips for Blocking Cookies (cont’d.)

– Let Privacy Experts Do The Work For You

How To Do It: A few privacy-oriented programmers (think of them as anti-hackers) have created tools that automatically delete cookies for you. There’s TACO, or Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out, which blocks cookies from dozens of different ad networks. There’s also PrivacyChoice, and a tool offered by the Network Advertising Initiative, the ad networks’ trade association. All three tools will cut down on the number of companies tracking you.

Why It’s Doomed: The same reasons why other techniques fail. It’s impossible for these tools to keep up with the constant proliferation of new companies and cookies. And they only work against cookies placed by ad networks, not those placed by publishers, advertisers or third-party companies that may gain access to your browser.

– Checkmate: Your Own Computer Gives You Away.

Even after you set your browser to delete existing cookies and ban new ones, download super-cookies and use the tools created by pro-privacy programmers, there’s one data-gathering technique that you simply cannot avoid. Your computer has hundreds of settings that control things like the main interface language (English, Korean, etc.), sound and screen resolution settings, and the color schemes people set for their Microsoft Word documents.

As you scroll the Internet, most websites automatically take snapshots of your settings. That information, combined with data on where you connect to the internet, can be used to track your movements around the web and build a profile about each visitor.

To see how effective this is at tracing individual users, I ran a test designed by Eckerseley called Panopticlick on my own computer. I’ve only had this computer for about a month, so I haven’t even taken the time to open my control panel and customize the settings for the track pad, keyboard, screen, etc. (The program doesn’t search for computers or beacons on your computer.)

Nevertheless, Panopticlick found 20 bits of identifying information on my Mac. Using those bits, it could tell that I was a unique user and not one of the 1.3 million people who ran the test before me.

No tools exist to prevent websites from gathering data on computer settings.

Image: Blaise Alleyne, via Flickr.com