FAQs : Can a web site
tell who I am?
When you visit a web site with typical web browser software
such as Mozilla or Internet Explorer, your software
does not normally volunteer any information that can
be used to identify you directly. Your email address
is notgiven to the web server. Your web browser does
hand over the following information:
1.Your current IP address. This is
the address your computer currently has assigned to
it on the Internet, and looks like this (just an example):
10.250.55.22. When you dial out and connect to your
ISP, you are assigned a temporary IP address, and your
address typically changes again when you call in later.
Your IP address can only be used to identify you if
your ISP chooses to cooperate with the investigation,
which they may be forced to do in a legal proceeding.
Under the USA Patriot Act and the DMCA, the government
can force companies to hand over such information, and
even before those laws there were already cases of ISPs
handing over such information in response to a subpoena.
Your ISP's records can be used todetermine who called
into what account at what time, and what address was
assigned to them during that time.
Some users do have "static" (unchanging)
IP addresses, which run a greater risk of revealing
your identity.
2.The page you came from, known as
the "referring URL." This is a useful convenience
for webmasters and does not normally compromise your
privacy, as the site still does not know who you are.
There are products available that will block reporting
of this and other information, however.
3.Miscellaneous information less important
to your privacy, such as the name of your web browser
software.
4. Cookies. Web sites that wish to
know whether the same person has returned again another
day have the ability to set a user-identifying "cookie"
which is recorded by your computer. In theory, this
is harmless because the site only knows that you are
the same person, returning again -- not your name. However,
the trouble begins when you give your true identity
to one site that requires cookies. Now, that site does
know your real name, and they can pass this information
to other sites you visit, which can then set a cookie
of their own to establish their own lasting awareness
of your actual identity.
These are the pieces of information that are given
out under normal circumstances. Security bugs in your
web browser software can be another source of potentially
serious privacy problems. When a serious security bug
is found in a web browser, it can be explited to run
any program on your computer.
Taking the following steps can enhance your privacy:
- Read the privacy policies of web sites before giving
them any personal information. Remember, however,
that companies can be acquired, and the acquiring
company may not be bound by the privacy policy.
- Install security fixes for your browser. Always
obtain these directly from the organization that created
your browser! In the case of Microsoft Internet Explorer,
make sure you are using the free Windows Update service.
In the case of Mozilla and/or Netscape, I recommend
keeping up with the latest stable version available
from mozilla.org.
- Set your browser to ask first before accepting cookies.
In some cases you may need to go ahead and accept
them, but most sites will let you in without them.
- Use a personal proxy server that strips out as much
identifying information as possible.
- Consider using a public anonymizing proxy server.
Of course, this is not perfect. As of this writing
you can find a useful list of such proxy servers at
the multiproxy
and anonymous proxy list site (warning: fairly
annoying ads).
- Use a proxy server shared by many members of the
same organization, giving them all the same apparent
IP address; make sure this proxy server is configured
to log no information at all.
Of course, there are many other ways to compromise
your privacy on the web, but these also apply to traditional
off-line businesses. Giving your personal mailing address,
email address and phone number to a company that later
goes bankrupt and sells its assets, including its customer
lists, is a common way to find yourself on many new
unwanted mailing lists.
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