Digital Fingerprints Can Be Used to ID Users
Be careful where you surf on the net! Most people are unaware of the digital fingerprints they leave behind. The Electronic Frontier Foundation in a research said that these fingerprints may be used to identify users.
EFF compared browser configurations from almost a million users and discovered that about 84 percent of internet visitors of a website used setting combinations that were unique to them. When The Register, a British media company, visited the site using Firefox, it received a message that read: "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 837,411 tested so far."
There's really no way to stop any website from building a database of digital fingerprints belonging to each person who visits the site. Most companies are already targeting their sales based on browser fingerprinting techniques that identify users and track online activities.
EFF's "panopticlick" website uses user agents, HTTP_ACCEPT Headers and dozens of other browser properties to calculate how many other visitors to the site have a common combination of settings. Steps are then suggested so that users may prevent their browser from displaying unique traits that can be traced back to them.