Related papers: HTTP Cookies: Standards, Privacy, and Politics
Since the beginning of the Internet thirty years ago, we have witnessed a number of changes in the application of communication technologies. Today, the Internet can be described to a large extent as a ubiquitous infrastructure that is…
Browsers and their users can be tracked even in the absence of a persistent IP address or cookie. Unique and hence identifying pieces of information, making up what is known as a fingerprint, can be collected from browsers by a visited…
In this paper we argue that policies are an increasing concern for organizations that are operating a web site. Examples of policies that are relevant in the domain of the web address issues such as privacy of personal data, accessibility…
The QUIC protocol combines features that were initially found inside the TCP, TLS and HTTP/2 protocols. The IETF is currently finalising a complete specification of this protocol. More than a dozen of independent implementations have been…
In the current connected world - Websites, Mobile Apps, IoT Devices collect a large volume of users' personally identifiable activity data. These collected data is used for varied purposes of analytics, marketing, personalization of…
The privacy implications of third-party tracking is a well-studied problem. Recent research has shown that besides data aggregators and behavioral advertisers, online social networks also act as trackers via social widgets. Existing cookie…
The recently introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires that when obtaining information online that could be used to identify individuals, their consents must be obtained. Among other things, this affects many common…
This article provides a quantitative analysis of privacy-compromising mechanisms on 1 million popular websites. Findings indicate that nearly 9 in 10 websites leak user data to parties of which the user is likely unaware; more than 6 in 10…
TCP SYN Cookies were implemented to mitigate against DoS attacks. It ensured that the server did not have to store any information for half-open connections. A SYN cookie contains all information required by the server to know the request…
In response to the ePrivacy Directive and the consent requirements introduced by the GDPR, websites began deploying consent banners to obtain user permission for data collection and processing. However, due to shared third-party services…
The third version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is currently in its final standardization phase by the IETF. Besides better security and increased flexibility, it promises benefits in terms of performance. HTTP/3 adopts a more…
Despite stringent data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other country-specific regulations, many websites continue to use cookies to track user…
Cookie banners are devices implemented by websites to allow users to manage their privacy settings with respect to the use of cookies. They are part of a user's daily web browsing experience since legislation in Europe requires websites to…
Recent developments to encrypt the Domain Name System (DNS) have resulted in major browser and operating system vendors deploying encrypted DNS functionality, often enabling various configurations and settings by default. In many cases,…
2010 has witnessed many public consultations around the world concerning Net neutrality. A second legislative phase that may follow, could involve various structural changes in the Internet. The status that the Internet access has in Europe…
We present new analytic techniques for inferring HTTP semantics from passive observations of HTTPS that can infer the value of important fields including the status-code, Content-Type, and Server, and the presence or absence of several…
The DNS is one of the most crucial parts of the Internet. Since the original DNS specifications defined UDP and TCP as the underlying transport protocols, DNS queries are inherently unencrypted, making them vulnerable to eavesdropping and…
Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing together give us the ability to sense, collect, process, and analyse data so we can use them to better understand behaviours, habits, preferences and life patterns of users and lead them to…
Cookies maintain state across related web traffic. As such, cookies are commonly used for authentication by storing a user's session ID and replacing the need to re-enter credentials in subsequent traffic. These so-called ``session…
Many Internet service providers (ISPs) throughout the world are now in the process of integrating IPv6 into their Internet access products for retail customers and corporate clients. One of the most important features of the IPv6 protocol…