Today, we are going to talk briefly about web browser tracking so what sites can view to track your web browser and track who you are?

Cookies

• Text tags that web sites store on your computer
• Can be tied to accounts, so can track you on every computer

When you log into an account, they can put a cookie on your computer stating that you are authenticated as you and be able to track what you do as you go along on that site both in the current session and in future sessions depending on when the cookie expires when you delete it.

By tying it to an account they can also make sure that they're tracking you on every computer so if you log in from your desktop at home and your desktop at work and your laptop and your tablet your phone they can be setting a cookie, they can be setting a cookie if you have authenticated from all those sites to tie all those in to be you and they know that you are you on each of those different devices wherever you happen to be.

Also useful for the website so they can do things like track what your preferences are, track where you're coming from if you want to have personalized information.

Metadata

metadata is things like your IP address so every computer has an IP address this is like the computers phone number this is how it calls out and ask for information and if you're behind a gateway at home or something your computer might not actually have the IP address it might be your home router or if you're in the office place it might be a different router

• IP address
• HTTP headers
  • Browser name
  • Browser version
  • Supported languages

Javascript

• Programs from the website that runs on your computer
• Limited access to your computer