What the Internet knows about you — dot com

 Posted by on 2 September 2009  Modern Life
Sep 022009
 

Now, I know the concept of “privacy” is nebulous on the Internet, but I’d still like to maintain a wee bit of circumspection around my browsing habits, thank you very much.

So this was an eyeopener:

http://whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com/

It displays a selection of your browsing history — including many popular websites, but also some of what you did there.

It’s currently uber-popular, and getting a bit slammed, so if you test it out, be prepared to wait a while, or come back later. Still, it’s worth visiting, just to see how much your web browser rats you out.

Try the (even slower) “all” page to see the full trail you leave behind you.

Now remember, the next site that seeks out this data might not be named “what the internet knows about you”. It could, in fact, just be code that’s hidden on whatever server supplies ads to one of your favourite sites.

And if you don’t care what your browser history tells, what about the saved passwords for your online banking, etc?

Grant Hamilton

  • MPot

    That’s scary. :O

  • Matt Goerzen

    There is, of course, a way around this. You simply set up Firefox to immediately delete your history every time you shut the browser.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    Matt: I’ve done that in the past, and you can set it up to not even keep your history at all, but unfortunately there is some benefit in having your recently-accessed sites at your fingertips. I know that sometimes I’m trying to search for something that I remember reading just a few days ago, and searching my history is so much easier than trolling all of the Internet for it.

    I find it unsettling that my history is visible to any website that asks for it, though.

  • Matt Goerzen

    Bookmarks…. :P