A study of the internet privacy in private browsing mode

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

8-15-2016

Abstract

Today the Internet has revolutionized it into a cyberspace, mainly due to its attributes of convenience, interoperability, fast search and confidence. It provides an affordable and secure way to spontaneously link people and computers across geographical boundaries. The massive economy of online services and digital information has dramatically changed our life today. Digital private information is sensitive personal information digitally stored in cyberspace, or being transmitted through the Internet. This may include gender, age, race, location, and records on health, finance, and even online activities. Although these types of data are usually privately stored, they can be intentionally or unintentionally revealed while surfing the Internet. To address the digital privacy concern, current Web Browsers developed the Private Browsing Mode (PBM) which promises to serve the user to surf the internet without leaving traces on the local machine. In this paper, we study the Internet privacy using Private Browsing Mode (PBM) with four test scenarios on several popular browsers. The test results indicate that, with current design of web sites and web browsers, even under PBM, privacy information could still be retrieved. We hope the finding can provide us an opportunity to improve future design of PBM in browsers.

Publication Title

ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

DOI

10.1145/2955129.2955153

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