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New software can identify you from your online habits »

Posted by: TheAttacks 2 years, 7 months ago

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IF YOU thought you could protect your privacy on the web by lying about your personal details, think again. In online communities at least, entering fake details such as a bogus name or age may no longer prevent others from working out exactly who you are.

Read Full Story at newscientisttech.com »

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TheAttacks

My name is Jeremiah Hoyet. You can find me in the Science & Technology category.

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Comments: 30

Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
TheAttacks
May 23, 2007, 1:29 a.m.
I should have titled it "Microsoft Funds Spyware"
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joeblowe
May 23, 2007, 10:27 a.m.
People should remember that the internet is a PUBLIC forum. You really can't have any expectation of privacy. And how nice of Uncle Bill to fund some research into ways to more properly target on-line advertising.
Avg rating: (+7/-1 6)
Macondo
May 23, 2007, 10:48 a.m.
Jeremy.
I could not read the entire story without buying a subscription.
The synopsis given souds interesting.
Could you make it more extensive or copy and paste in another link?
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
saneman
May 23, 2007, 10:50 a.m.
Another money-making gimmick by Microsoft.
Avg rating: (+11/-0 11)
nu2007
May 23, 2007, 12:23 p.m.
Let's use it to trace Uncle Bill's illegal online activities and put him in jail
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WCFIELDS
May 23, 2007, 12:57 p.m.
Illegal? Of course it's illegal. And Immoral, too. Land's sakes Alive, Man. YOU BE PROFILIN'! Haven't you been listening to Al Sharpton?
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progressive-bum
May 23, 2007, 1:37 p.m.
Stay away from Windows if you intend to get online with your computer, use proxies and anonymising software. There is a boatload of free software on the internet, along with documentation on how to install and use it. And quit signing up for "free" laptops and other junk sweepstakes.
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loquaciousrana
May 23, 2007, 3:56 p.m.
It would be interesting to see the statistical equations they are going to use to analyze that amount of data. I wonder what efficiency their algorithms will attain to. Knowing Microsoft it will probably be O(N^16). By the time they have figured out who are you, you will have been dead for a millenium.
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MiraJane
May 23, 2007, 4:44 p.m.
This isn't anything new, folks. It isn't going to find out your name and exact address despite the hysterical tone of the article.
Linguists the world over can pinpoint a person's gender, educational, economic, and geographical background from their speech and writing patterns. This software is taking those patterns shown by web browsing and using statistical analysis and making a "best guess" as to the above.
For instance, the article stated that women go to health sites more often then men do. So if the software finds a person goes to WebMd often it will conclude the person is female.
It's using statistics and past patterns, that's all.
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Macondo
May 23, 2007, 6:16 p.m.
Mira:
You said: "Linguists the world over can pinpoint a person's gender, educational, economic, and geographical background from their speech and writing patterns."
Does it mean we will be able to find if "FSUgrad..." ever went to school ?
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
barkytreestump
May 23, 2007, 8:15 p.m.
oh no some guy that uses the internet is gonna come to my house and hurt me
Avg rating: (+9/-1 8)
kobzikov
May 23, 2007, 8:17 p.m.
"74 per cent of women seek health and medical information online, while only 58 per cent of men do. And 34 per cent of women surf the internet for information about religion, whereas 25 per cent of men do the same."
Eep. If that's the breakdown I should consider changing my surfing habits, lest I'll be considered a woman by Microsoft or whoever's collecting the information.
I guess I should consider looking for porn more on internet so they profile me correctly as well.
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Beau7890
May 23, 2007, 8:49 p.m.
The software will be evil, once they refine it. But the truly terrifying thing is that marketers have been doing this for years, collecting information on people and puttting them in very well-defined demographics with fairly amazing accuracy.
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coreyspring
May 23, 2007, 9:49 p.m.
That's kinda creepy
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Ringwraith
May 23, 2007, 11:33 p.m.
Know what's even creepier? We're helping 'em do it. You know all the little "Discount Cards" like CVS and Stop and Shop have.... You don't use the card? No discount. You use the card and they have a record of everything you've ever purchased. Is the discount worth you're privacy?
Avg rating: (+9/-5 4)
bluedempsey
May 24, 2007, 12:03 a.m.
While the new software may sound scary at first, it seems to me that countermeasures against it would be one of the easiest to develop. Since the software attempts to analyze you by your browsing habits, all that needs to be done is develop anti-spyware applications that "scramble" or "fake" your habits, by downloading a few random pages on the net while you're browsing the ones you're actually interested in.
A smart programmer may even develop a configurable "impersonator" application, which downloads specific pages and allows you to seem like a 60 year old female puritan while you're actually a 20 year old male pervert ;-)
Avg rating: (+6/-0 6)
keyfitter
May 24, 2007, 12:05 a.m.
This is yet another example of electronic
intrusion. Big Brother Bill can take all
of his software and stick it where the
sun does not shine.
'
Anything from online snooping to creating
a fuss over new hardware installed on your
computer is the only thing Microsoft does
well.. I just installed another hard drive
and later booted into XP, which I rarely
ever use. Got a message about "significant
hardware changes" and that XP would have to
be activated.
'
No problem, I just deleted the whole partition.
Now I am running just two operating systems, and
they are both Linux. So, who needs Windows that
breaks, and Gates to lock you into using crappy
software?.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
syafthegeek
May 24, 2007, 12:14 a.m.
Man, another spyware? Not again
Avg rating: (+5/-1 4)
aaahchi
May 24, 2007, 11:37 a.m.
The most stupid news article I have ever seen. Every website knows your IP address, browser version, and the webpages you visited. Those don't mean IDENTITY.
Avg rating: (+7/-1 6)
aaahchi
May 24, 2007, 12:10 p.m.
The reporter is mixing the meaning of "Identity" and "Preference". If you read the conference paper, you can see the researchers are trying to provide personalized service which match people's perference, instead of trying to identify people.
Avg rating: (+9/-19 -10)
SwampFox1
May 24, 2007, 12:42 p.m.
Just like ol' Dick-head and Spiro T. The Watergate break-in wasn't the only place Nixon raided. Must have tweeked poor Agnew's nose something terrible reading all those internal confidential memos on investigations 'bout his big land fraud in Maryland. That's what nailed ol' Spiro T...that and comspiracy to defraud
As I was oft' to mutter back then, "Burn, Baby, Burn..."
Avg rating: (+7/-5 2)
abundancelee
May 25, 2007, 11:53 p.m.
What many people do not realize is that already, when we are online, there are ways to track and know what you have been doing and whether you have been naughty or nice.
Do you think getting all these free email accounts, chat programs etc is not giving something away.
So what we must learn to do is to be prudent in our surfing habits :-)