Recently, a study by three researchers at Princeton University concluded that nearly 500 top-viewed pages or websites record everything visitors do. These websites, some of which are as popular as microsoft.com, wordpress.com, adobe.com, and more.
500 Popular Websites That Record All Your Keystrokes and Mouse Movements
A study by three researchers at Princeton University found that nearly 500 of the most visited web pages record everything visitors do. These websites, some of which are as popular as microsoft.com, wordpress.com, adobe.com, godaddy.com, spotify.com, reuters.com or ryanair.com, record almost everything a user does by them. browsing, such as moving to a certain section, what you type in a text box, keystrokes and mouse movements. And all, of course, without the user knowing or receiving a notification that this is happening.
Until now, it was known that most sites on the Internet had crawl scripts that record which pages users visit and what searches they perform. But – according to the authors of the study – lately more and more sites are using “repeat session” scripts.
These scripts record keystrokes, mouse movements, and scrolling behavior, as well as all content on the pages you visit. Unlike traditional analytics services that provide aggregate statistics, “these scripts are meant to record and play back individual browsing sessions as if someone is looking over their shoulder,” the study says.
In principle, the stated purpose of this practice includes collecting information about how users interact with sites and discover pages that have design flaws, do not work, or are confusing.
However, the scope of the data collected by these services often goes further. For example, text written on forms is collected before the user submits it. According to the researchers, “It is not reasonable to expect this information to remain anonymous. In fact, some of these scripts allow you to explicitly link records to a user’s actual identity. ”
And as always, these type of programs also store credit card data, medical information, and other personal information, which exposes users to identity theft or online fraud, among other threats, in case any. this information ends up in the hands of others.
Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are providing fake data – so-called corrupt data – when interacting with business websites. This is what emerges from the latest studies carried out by Hocelot, a company dedicated to instantly obtaining user data.
According to this company, 60% of users lie or provide at least one false information when requesting personal data on the Internet. This fact makes it possible to calculate that approximately 25% of user data held by companies is false.
There are several reasons why users tamper with data. First, avoid being identified by the company and escape the harassment of online campaigns. Likewise, users often partially falsify certain data (age, geographic location, etc.) in order to be excluded or included in certain segments. For example, according to Hocelot, 23% of users say they occasionally falsify their date of birth. Finally, there are those who falsify data for illegal purposes. And then, of course, there are the unintentional errors and those that occur when you type incorrectly while entering them.
Click here to see the complete list of websites that record user sessions.
So what do you think? Just share your opinions and thoughts in the comments section below.
