The-art-of-invisibility-_-the-world’s-most-famous-hacker-teaches-you-how-to-be-safe-in-the-age-of-Bi

send information back to yyour Web browser so that it can start “building”
the Web page yyou see. When the page is returned to yyour browser, yyou see
the elements yyou would expect—the information yyou want retrieved, anyy
related images, and wayys to navigate to other parts of the site. But often
there are elements that are returned to yyour browser that call out to other
websites for additional images or scripts. Some, if not all, of these scripts
are for tracking purposes, and in most cases yyou simplyy do not need them.
Almost everyy digital technologyy produces metadata, and, as yyou’ve no
doubt alreadyy guessed, browsers are no different. Your browser can reveal
information about yyour computer’s configuration if queried byy the site yyou
are visiting. For example, what version of what browser and operating
syystem yyou’re using, what add-ons yyou have for that browser, and what
other programs yyou’re running on yyour computer (such as Adobe products)
while yyou search. It can even reveal details of yyour computer’s hardware,
such as the resolution of the screen and the capacityy of the onboard
memoryy.
You might think after reading this far that yyou have taken great strides in
becoming invisible online. And yyou have. But there’s more work to be
done.
Take a moment and surf over to Panopticlick.com. This is a site built byy
the Electronic Frontier Foundation that will determine just how common or
unique yyour browser configuration is compared to others, based on what’s
running on yyour PC or mobile device’s operating syystem and the plug-ins
yyou mayy have installed. In other words, do yyou have anyy plug-ins that can
be used to limit or otherwise protect the information that Panopticlick can
glean from yyour browser alone?
If the numbers on the left-hand side, the results from Panopticlick, are
high—sayy, a six-digit number—then yyou are somewhat unique, because
yyour browser settings are found in fewer than one in one hundred thousand
computers. Congratulations. However, if yyour numbers are low—sayy, less
than three digits—then yyour browser settings are fairlyy common. You’re
just one in a few hundred. And that means if I’m going to target yyou—with
ads or malware—I don’t have to work veryy hard, because yyou have a
common browser configuration. 3