firefox - What user information is exposed via a browser?

07
2014-07
  • ipso

    Is there a function or website that can collect and display ALL of the user information that can be obtained via a browser?

    Background:

    • This of course does not account for the significant cross-reference abilities of large corporations to collate multiple sources and signals from users across various properties, but it's a first step.

    • Ghostery is just a great idea; to show people all of the surreptitious scripts that run on any given website. But what information is available – what is the total set of values stored – that those scripts can collect from?

    • If you login to a search engine and stay logged in but leave their tab, is that company still collecting your webpage viewing and activity from other tabs? Can past or future inputs to pages be captured – say comments on another website? What types of activities are stored as variables in the browser app that can be collected?

    • This is surely a highly complex question, given to countless user scenarios – but my whole point is to be able to cut through all that – and just show the total set of data available at any given point in time. Then you can A/B test and see what is available with in a fresh session with one tab open vs. the same webpage but with 12 tabs open, and a full day of history to boot.

    (Latest Firefox & Chrome – on Win7, Win8 or Mint13 – although I'd like to think that won't make too much of a difference. Make assumptions. Simple is better.)

  • Answers
  • RJFalconer

    All information available to webserver from browser collated into a finger-print:

    https://panopticlick.eff.org/

    Includes surprising identifiers such as which system fonts are installed.

  • arielnmz

    Any website or a web service can collect astonishing amounts of information about you, your habits and, of course, your merchandizable preferences. This by only monitoring your steps though the web, let alone the collective and individual statistical information that can be generated with that information.

    We are all the product being sold if we're not the ones buying something (but sometimes we're both).

    The kinds of information range from search queries to geolocalization. It depends on the methods employed: tracking cookies, browser extensions, licence agreements…

    But as far as you may be concerned, a web service can know (and they are more likely interested in):

    • Your habits.
    • The content you share within their services.
    • The content you publish within other sites that may sell your information.
    • The actual things and the kind of things you do with their services.
    • The actual things and the kind of things you do with other services that may sell your information.

    Almost all of them are open to exchange your presence and your fingerprints on their applications for a good cash. The information includes, but is not limited to:

    • Addresses
    • Names
    • Numbers
    • Queries
    • Shopping lists
    • Geo position coordinates
    • Comments
    • Images
    • Your mood

    One may say that all of this is evil, but there's a reason why they're called information technologies.

  • Chenmunka

    Although not telling you ALL information as you request, there are various tools available at GRC which give a lot of information.

    Better known for Shields Up, GRC will tell you what it can see from your browser. It should give some assistance in what you seek.


  • Related Question

    firefox - Web browser memory usage
  • Yanick Rochon

    How come web browsers are so heavy in memory? I have Firefox opened with two tabs, and it takes over 800 MB of RAM, Chrome with four tabs takes over 1.2 GB! I mean, what's up with consuming so much memory?


  • Related Answers
  • Gnoupi

    From my experience, Chrome is a bit free on the system resources, especially if you go to some heavy sites (if it can use more memory to make your navigation faster, it will).

    About Firefox, the weight is usually caused by the number of plugins and toolbars you have installed. Try intalling it again in a separate place, and install only the minimum of plugins.

    Opera is not the lightest, but it has reasonable memory use in my opinion (amongst other great functionalities in my opinion, but this is not the place). Also, you can't install plugins besides the included ones, it helps with not cluttering it.

    Keep in mind though that websites are getting heavier and heavier. The amount of javascript, the plugins they require (like flash) make some pages really heavy. It's quite common nowadays that the browser becomes the heaviest program launched, with an average memory usage around 300-400mb.

    For information, here is a recent (as of today, at least) comparative between browsers, to give an idea of the speed and memory uses you should expect.

  • Chris White

    In Chrome, use Shift+Escape to view memory usage per tab and memory usage per plugin. Hopefully that demystifies why Chrome is consuming so much for you.

  • vemv

    In Firefox, about:config lets you configure a number of memory usage related parameters.