Related papers: HTTP Cookies: Standards, Privacy, and Politics
Today, Internet offers many critical applications. So, it becomes very crucial for Internet service providers to ensure traceability of operations and to secure data exchange. Since all these communications are based on the use of the…
Securing the communication between a web server and a browser is a fundamental task of securing the World Wide Web. Websites today rely heavily on HTTPS to set up secure connections. In recent years, several incidents undermined this trust…
Privacy has deteriorated in the world wide web ever since the 1990s. The tracking of browsing habits by different third-parties has been at the center of this deterioration. Web cookies and so-called web beacons have been the classical ways…
Cookies are enjoyed best when they are both crispy and soft. I investigate in which proportion the cookies are crispy and soft, and disentangle whether it makes them biscuits, cakes, or none of the above. I baked cookies for colleagues at…
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the foundation of a human-usable Internet, responding to client queries for host-names with corresponding IP addresses and records. Traditional DNS is also unencrypted, and leaks user information to network…
Privacy policies are the main way to obtain information related to personal data collection and processing. Originally, privacy policies were presented as textual documents. However, the unsuitability of this format for the needs of today's…
It is notoriously difficult to securely configure HTTPS, and poor server configurations have contributed to several attacks including the FREAK, Logjam, and POODLE attacks. In this work, we empirically evaluate the TLS security posture of…
The ever increasing popularity of Facebook and other Online Social Networks has left a wealth of personal and private data on the web, aggregated and readily accessible for broad and automatic retrieval. Protection from both undesired…
Following QUIC protocol ratification on May 2021, the third major version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, namely HTTP/3, was published around one year later in RFC 9114. In light of these consequential advancements, the current work…
Formal specifications have numerous benefits for both designers and users of network protocols. They provide clear, unambiguous representations, which are useful as documentation and for testing. They can help reveal disagreements about…
Browser fingerprinting is a relatively new method of uniquely identifying browsers that can be used to track web users. In some ways it is more privacy-threatening than tracking via cookies, as users have no direct control over it. A number…
The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical objects around the planet that are now connected to the Internet, many of which store and exchange the data without human interaction. In recent years the Internet of Things…
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.…
Web tracking by ad networks, social networks, and other third parties is privacy-invasive. To protect users' privacy an increasing number of countries are adopting new privacy laws. However, a major reason why their application on the web…
Despite increasing advancements in today's information exchange infrastructure, the preservation of user data and privacy still remains a problem. Both insecure baselines and secure solutions leak user data. For example, Certificate…
Website information security has become a critical concern in the digital age. This article explores the evolution of website information security, examining its historical development, current practices, and future directions. The early…
Privacy preference signals allow users to express preferences over how their personal data is processed. These signals become important in determining privacy outcomes when they reference an enforceable legal basis, as is the case with…
The rise of cookie paywalls ('pay-or-ok' models) has prompted growing debates around the right to privacy and data protection, monetisation, and the legitimacy of user consent. Despite their increasing use across sectors, limited research…
Users care greatly about preserving the privacy of their personal data gathered during their use of information systems. This extends to both the data they actively provide in exchange for services as well as the metadata passively…
Cookie paywalls allow visitors to access the content of a website only after making a choice between paying a fee (paying option) or accepting tracking (cookie option). The practice has been studied in previous research in regard to its…