Researchers from the KU Leuven, the University of Nijmegen and the University of Lausanne analyzed 100,000 of the most popular sites and found that some of them collect the email address entered by the user even before he sends it – if a person changes his mind at the last moment, then his email is still will already be in the database of third parties. It is reported by WIRED.
For more than a year, experts have been researching sites targeted at residents of the European Union and the United States. It turned out that among them, 1,844 portals for the EU and 2,950 resources for the United States of America use this trick. The developers of most of these sites seem to be doing this unintentionally, using third-party marketing and analytics services that instigate such activity.
Third parties need this information in order to understand which sites the user visits and better tailor ads to them.
The researchers also specifically analyzed sites for a similar collection of entered passwords. They ended up finding this on 52 sites where third-party services (including Yandex) were “accidentally collecting passwords” even before they were sent by users. Having identified these violations, the experts sent a report to the fixed sites – subsequently, all 52 cases were eliminated.
Detailed results of the study will be published in August at the Esenix conference, but some in-depth information is already known. For example, some sites are reported to act as keyloggers—reading each character you type as soon as you press a key. However, most save information only after the user leaves the current input field (or moves on to the next one).
Source: Trash Box
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
