This week in class we focused on the kind of data that we leave behind on browsers, apps and websites. We looked through different sites the first one was “clickclickclick”, this site demonstrates truly how much information websites can learn about you and your behaviour. As you interact with the website the site starts narrating and observing your interactions. For example how fast you move you mouse or how often you click the button. The point of this website is to show users that everything they do online companies use to build profiles about them. After interacting with the app I originally thought it was interesting but after a while I found it slightly creepy how much can be gathered from ordinary actions.

The next website I explored was “Since you Arrived” this website browser reveals where you are, when you arrived, what you brought with you, what renders your world, battery %, what language you speak, what you carry, what you allow on your computer, the site you were last one, how many times you switched tabs. This site shows 36 data points which means that it has collected 36 distinct pieces of information about your online behaviour. On their own, this information is not very helpful to identifying things but when they are all combined they form a browser fingerprint tailored to the user. This was a very interesting but creepy browser, I could not believe how much of my information they had just within the first 5 seconds of being on the site.

The last website I checked out was “Privacy.net”. This website had 5 different categories of information to look through. At first it was very similar to “Since you Arrived” it started out telling me my location, my IP address, what my laptop is running and my battery %. This site shows how much information your browser exposes and the goal is that the user understands the privacy risks. The fingerprint analysis seemed to be the most important but I found it to be extremely clunky, the gist of what I gathered was that even though you might block cookies your unique fingerprint can still at times be used to recognize your path.I did I find out that 0.00% of observed browsers run Mac 10.15 which I found funny because I am currently running Mac 10.15.

Lastly we looked through Google Maps, I have used google maps and I was familiar with the timeline it creates of the places someone visits. I always thought this history was useful especially because it keeps track of everything. On the other end it is creepy how it saves and holds onto data.