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Can websites and internet associations track what OS/computer you use?

A

applefan289

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 20, 2010
1,705
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USA
I was just wondering if associations that keep statistics of website traffic or just general internet statistics can tell what OS/computer you are running.

Meaning, with the amount of iPhones sold (and iPads), have the internet statistics shown that many people access the internet through Apple devices, for example?

I'm not sure if my question is clear, so let me know if it's not and I'll explain more.
 
miles01110 said:
Yes, websites can and do track what computer/OS you use.
Click to expand...

When you say websites, do you mean the statistics of the traffic that visits the website? Also, can a general association that focuses on internet traffic gather data about what the majority uses, etc.?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Google Analytics (free tracker) will even give you details like:
  • Flash Version
  • Java Support
  • Screen Resolution
  • Screen Colors
  • Operating System (Desktop and Mobile)
  • Browser
  • Service Provider
  • Connection Speed
 
RawBert said:
Google Analytics (free tracker) will even give you details like:
  • Flash Version
  • Java Support
  • Screen Resolution
  • Screen Colors
  • Operating System (Desktop and Mobile)
  • Browser
  • Service Provider
  • Connection Speed
Click to expand...

They can track all this and much more. The Security Now podcast did a show a few months ago on what they called side-loading info in browsers. It's episode 264 if anyone is interested. Anyway, one of the things they covered was a test the EFF ran. The experiment was called Panopticlick, and it ran some Javascript code that collected tons of info on visitors. So much so that they were able to uniquely identify a huge percentage of users. They called it a unique fingerprint.

The experimental site was able to collect all of the above stuff plus, info such as screen resolution, installed fonts, time zone, and more. They could also detect what version of a plugin, including Flash, Adobe Reader, Silverlight, Java, Firefox extensions, etc the browser was using. The results? In browsers not running Java or Flash, they were able to establish a unique fingerprint of the browser 84% of the time. On browsers with Java or Flash, it was 94% of the time. By unique fingerprint, they mean they were able to identify a certain visitor as being the only one running a certain combination of software, fonts, screen resolution, etc.

Fun stuff, eh? :eek:
 
steve2112 said:
They can track all this and much more. The Security Now podcast did a show a few months ago on what they called side-loading info in browsers. It's episode 264 if anyone is interested. Anyway, one of the things they covered was a test the EFF ran. The experiment was called Panopticlick, and it ran some Javascript code that collected tons of info on visitors. So much so that they were able to uniquely identify a huge percentage of users. They called it a unique fingerprint.

The experimental site was able to collect all of the above stuff plus, info such as screen resolution, installed fonts, time zone, and more. They could also detect what version of a plugin, including Flash, Adobe Reader, Silverlight, Java, Firefox extensions, etc the browser was using. The results? In browsers not running Java or Flash, they were able to establish a unique fingerprint of the browser 84% of the time. On browsers with Java or Flash, it was 94% of the time. By unique fingerprint, they mean they were able to identify a certain visitor as being the only one running a certain combination of software, fonts, screen resolution, etc.

Fun stuff, eh? :eek:
Click to expand...

Wow, that's amazing. I like it though. Of course, privacy matters, but if you're not doing what you're not supposed to do, then it shouldn't matter.

But I love going on porn sites.
 
It gets even more interesting when you look at mouse tracking and screen capture software that you can install on a website.

Check out Tealeaf and Clicktale for some examples
 
You could use Firefox and the extension User Agent Switcher. This way your computer would stop broadcasting your browser and OS info everywhere. And if you disable Javascript you can hide all the other stuff (resolution, etc).
 
lewis82 said:
You could use Firefox and the extension User Agent Switcher. This way your computer would stop broadcasting your browser and OS info everywhere. And if you disable Javascript you can hide all the other stuff (resolution, etc).
Click to expand...

Thats

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lewis82 said:
You could use Firefox and the extension User Agent Switcher. This way your computer would stop broadcasting your browser and OS info everywhere. And if you disable Javascript you can hide all the other stuff (resolution, etc).
Click to expand...

Thats a big price to pay for losing tracking though!

So many modern sites depend on JS

I don't like the idea of being tracked either, but as someone who uses website data as part of their job I do think it is a good thing.

Website owners can use this data to improve their sites to give visitors a better experience.
 
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