Checking the ‘fingerprint’ of your own system(APPLICATIONS)

            When surfi ng on the Internet, you have doubts that your surfi ng habits are being spied on by the websites you are visiting. Hence, you wish to check what data is being revealed by the browser without being asked and to what extent it is suitable for identifi cation and tracking.
            Even if you do not reveal any personal data via cookies or direct inputs to a website, the data transmitted by the browser can be enough to identify the PC. The following is applicable in the process: the more customized the configuration of the browser and computer, the easier it is for a website to detect that it is the same computer again, without even knowing the personal data.
             The Panoptic lick project determines how unique your computer-browser combination is using statistical figures. You thus get an idea how visible you are on the Internet.

             In order to test this, go to http://panopticlick.eff.org and click ‘Test me’ there. The following analysis shows which information can be read out by the website and how specifi c this confi guration is. The table containing the individual components shows the data reported by your browser and also how important the information content in it is. Most of the special features are due to the browser plug-ins and fonts of the PC. At present, you can do little to prevent this information transmission. It is advisable to use the latest version of a common browser and install only the necessary plug-ins and fonts. From now on, the private mode of the browser should also ensure simplifi ed and standardized data transmission to the user-agent and plug-ins. Switching off Javascript completely is the most eff ective option since the detection of plug-ins and fonts is prevented. If you use Firefox, you can block the function to a great extent using the ‘NoScript’ tool. You can get more information at http://panopticlick.eff.org/self-defense.php.
BACKGROUND: Purely from the statistical point of view, about 33 bit of independent information is required (233) to distinguish all the 6 billion people. If the sex is known, for instance, it provides one bit information, because it is relevant for every second person on an average. In addition, if the birth date is known without the year, it is true of just every 365th person. The same principle also applies to the data from browser information. Detailed information on this topic can be found at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/primerinformation-theory-and-privacy.