- Feb 6, 2017
- 154
The study De-anonymizing Web Browsing Data with Social Networks found that it was possible to reattach identities to 374 sets of apparently anonymous browsing histories simply by following the connections between links shared on Twitter feeds and the likelihood that a user would favour personal recommendations over abstract web browsing.
The test subjects were provided with a Chrome extension that extracted their browsing history; the researchers then used Twitter’s proprietary URL-shortening protocol to identify t.co links. 81% of the top 15 results of each enquiry run through the de-anonymisation program contained the correct re-identified user – and 72% of the results identified the user in first place.
The test subjects were provided with a Chrome extension that extracted their browsing history; the researchers then used Twitter’s proprietary URL-shortening protocol to identify t.co links. 81% of the top 15 results of each enquiry run through the de-anonymisation program contained the correct re-identified user – and 72% of the results identified the user in first place.
