Related papers: Browser Feature Usage on the Modern Web
Browser agents enable autonomous web interaction but face critical reliability and security challenges in production. This paper presents findings from building and operating a production browser agent. The analysis examines where current…
Modern websites frequently use and embed third-party services to facilitate web development, connect to social media, or for monetization. This often introduces privacy issues as the inclusion of third-party services on a website can allow…
Ad blockers allow users to browse websites without viewing ads. Online news providers that rely on advertising revenue tend to perceive users adoption of ad blockers purely as a threat to revenue. Yet, this perception ignores the…
Through social network sites (SNS) are between the most popular sites in the Web, there is not a formal study on their functional features. This paper introduces a comprehensive list of them. Then, it shows how these features are supported…
Numerous tools have been developed to aggressively block the execution of popular JavaScript programs (JS) in Web browsers. Such blocking also affects functionality of webpages and impairs user experience. As a consequence, many privacy…
Modern Web APIs allow developers to provide extensively customized experiences for website visitors, but the richness of the device information they provide also make them vulnerable to being abused to construct browser fingerprints,…
The broad proliferation of mobile devices in recent years has drastically changed the means of accessing the World Wide Web. Describing a shift away from the desktop computer era for content consumption, predictions indicate that the main…
The web is the prominent way information is exchanged in the 21st century. However, ensuring web-based information is accessible is complicated, particularly with web applications that rely on JavaScript and other technologies to deliver…
There is a plethora of research articles describing the deep semantics of JavaScript. Nevertheless, such articles are often difficult to grasp for readers not familiar with formal semantics. In this report, we propose a digest of the…
Many websites import large JavaScript (JS) libraries to customize and enhance user experiences. Our data shows that many JS libraries are only partially utilized during a page load, and therefore, contain superfluous code that is never…
The intrusiveness and the increasing invasiveness of online advertising have, in the last few years, raised serious concerns regarding user privacy and Web usability. As a reaction to these concerns, we have witnessed the emergence of a…
The growth of digitalization services via web browsers has simplified our daily routine of doing business. But at the same time, it has made the web browser very attractive for several cyber-attacks. Web phishing is a well-known cyberattack…
Content filtering in web browsers is a tedious process for most of the people, because of several reasons. By blocking JavaScript, Cookies and Popups, end users can ensure maximum protection from browser based attacks and vulnerabilities.…
On the modern web, trackers and advertisers frequently construct and monetize users' detailed behavioral profiles without consent. Despite various studies on web tracking mechanisms and advertisements, there has been no rigorous study…
Cross Site Scripting (XSS) Flaws are currently the most popular security problems in modern web applications. These Flaws make use of vulnerabilities in the code of web-applications, resulting in serious consequences, such as theft of…
To what extent are users surveilled on the web, by what technologies, and by whom? We answer these questions by combining passively observed, anonymized browsing data of a large, representative sample of Americans with domain-level data on…
The web is experiencing an explosive growth in the last years. New technologies are introduced at a very fast-pace with the aim of narrowing the gap between web-based applications and traditional desktop applications. The results are web…
JavaScript has been consistently among the most popular programming languages in the past decade. However, its dynamic, weakly-typed, and asynchronous nature can make it challenging to write maintainable code for developers without in-depth…
Web applications are becoming truly pervasive in all kinds of business models and organizations. Today, most critical systems such as those related to health care, banking, or even emergency response, are relying on these applications. They…
As one of the most popular software applications, a web application is a program, accessible through the web, to dynamically generate content based on user interactions or contextual data, for example, online shopping platforms, social…