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[isthisthingon]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/192648/browser_fingerprints_a_big_privacy_threat.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

The method pulls together innocuous data about your browser, such as plug-ins, system fonts, and your operating system. Alone, they don't identify you. Together, they're a digital fingerprint.

 

More Than a Rumor

Peter Eckersley, a staff technologist with the EFF, says he and his colleagues de­­cided to create the site when he heard rumors about this kind of tracking. He wanted to see how accurate it might be.  Well, it's pretty accurate. And as it turns out, its use is more than a rumor.  Browser fingerprinting was developed for banks to employ to prevent fraud. But now one company, Scout Analytics, offers it as a service to Web sites, and it collects not just browser data but also data about how you type--things like your typing speed and typing patterns.

[nutballs]

hehehe I been doing this for 5 years LOL.
Or at least was until I stopped caring.

I had so many repeat visitors in short timeframes, that I needed to deal with the fact that they were giving away my sites to google by requesting the same ad units over an over. So i fingerprinted them and tracked in a central DB.

This really only worked for short durations though. Tracking over days didnt work so well because there are not an infinite number of fingerprints within some popular IPs, like AOL for example. But all the pieces together DO tend to be unique, because you run a slightly different plugin than another guy. Companies with we executed patch and software management running through something like ISA server was a problem, and should still be i think?

[isthisthingon]

>Or at least was until I stopped caring.

In business, who needs to worry about tracking and locating people when you have more than enough fish in your cloud barrel to support, up-sell, secure recurring revenue from and finally shoot?