In his piece for Arstechnica, Dan Goodin details the findings of a study looking to find what web browser cares most about a user’s privacy. While the findings may not be shocking, the information that Goodin details, which he obtained from an independent study, does in fact confirm that a user’s privacy is not always respected. Goodin references a study done by Doug Lieth, a computer scientist from Trinity College. In his research, Lieth ranks popular web browsers based on their “sending of data—including unique identifiers and details related to typed URLs—that could be used to track users over time”.
Leith notes that the three most common choices for the average user, rank similarly. Google Chrome “sends a persistent identifier along with website addresses, allowing the two to be linked”, which seemingly can not be switched off. Chrome refused to comment when reached out to by Arstechnica, which is particularly interesting since both Apple (sort of) and Mozilla provided a statement. Apple’s Safari browser was noted to have a problematic start page that can “leak information to “multiple third parties””. Apple claims that this feature can be turned off, but it is on by default. Mozilla released a lengthy response, saying that the data it collects is not damning to a user’s privacy, and that anything that was noted as more damaging, such as the “Sync” data, was optional. The browser that ranked highest, was a new start-up browser called Brave. Brave was found to avoid any type of major collection of data.
Interestingly, even the browser championed by many, myself included, Firefox was scrutinized in the report. I had never even heard of Brave until reading this article, and I of course am assumed to be more in tune than the average user. The common theme that all of the major browsers have improvement to be made is fair, but what is less excusable is this idea that privacy is a switch that is left off by default. I take great umbrage with this idea that the user needs to have a computer science degree in many cases just to protect themselves from unnecessary spying. Privacy options should always be designed to protect users, not business interest, and therefore switched on unless the user chooses otherwise. Apple and Google’s lack of a true statement certainly makes me less likely to trust their products, and while Firefox is not a perfect browser I respect Mozilla for trying to do the right thing.
Source Article: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/03/study-ranks-edges-default-privacy-settings-the-lowest-of-all-major-browsers/
Social Structures & Algorithms 