User Privacy and the Evolution of Third-party Tracking Mechanisms on the World Wide Web

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Third-party tracking refers to tracking done by websites that a user never navigates to explicitly. Many Internet users are vaguely aware that their information may be collected online. However, data suggests there is relatively little knowledge about third-party tracking and its associated privacy risks. The FoxTracks software tool attempts to address this lack of knowledge about third-party online tracking for the benefit of interested users with varying levels of technical knowledge. FoxTracks is a Firefox add-on program that browses the web along with the user and collects information about three types of trackers that may be monitoring the user: HTTP cookies, Local Shared Flash Objects, and DOM Storage entries. The interface to FoxTracks displays the user's information as it has been collected by the trackers; the highly personalized view of third-party tracking is uniquely accessible and informative for end-users. Beyond the development of FoxTracks, the analysis presented in this thesis discusses the history, key players, and motivations of third-party tracking, and how each influenced the design choices made in the software. In particular, the motivations of third-party entities, who are frequently online advertisers, are examined in at length. A computer security rubric is then applied to the behavior and tracking methodologies of third parties in order to show their adversarial qualities in matters of user privacy.

Type of resource	text
Date created	2010-05-18

Author	Mittal, Sonal
Advisor	Mitchell, John
Department	Stanford University. Department of Computer Science.

Subject	Data protection
Subject	Internet searching
Subject	Personal information management
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/hw648fn9717

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Mittal, Sonal (2010). User Privacy and the Evolution of Third-party Tracking Mechanisms on the World Wide Web. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at http://purl.stanford.edu/hw648fn9717

Undergraduate Theses, School of Engineering

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