Creepy new website makes its monitoring of your online behaviour visible

[997440]

It's a good tool of demonstration for those who are newish (and oldish) to the Web because of its audio/visual feedback.

EDIT : After trying this for awhile, a warning -- an occasional profanity is spoken (including the F-bomb) through the audio feedback.

IF YOU think you are not being analysed while browsing websites, it could be time to reconsider.

A creepy new website called clickclickclick has been developed to demonstrate how our online behaviour is continuously measured.

Dutch media company VPRO and Amsterdam based interactive design company Studio Moniker are the masterminds behind the site, which observes and comments on your behaviour in great detail.

The website — which is not harmful to your computer — contains nothing but a white screen and a large green button.

From the minute you visit the website, it begins detailing your actions on the screen in real-time.

The site also encourages users to turn on their audio, which offers the even more disturbing experience of having an English voice comment about your behaviour.[...]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/o...e/news-story/3e60aa78393affd8e89a6692dbbc426f

 

[airlied]

just tried that. its really creepy

 

[KALLT]

That Dutch accent is even scarier. *shudder*

The website demonstrates the power of JavaScript. A lot can be done with that language, for good and bad purposes. The web has become so dependent on it, that turning it off is not an option anymore.

 

[airlied]

That Dutch accent is even scarier. *shudder*

The website demonstrates the power of JavaScript. A lot can be done with that language, for good and bad purposes. The web has become so dependent on it, that turning it off is not an option anymore.

I dont know anything about the web so I want to ask a stupid question: are those web owners able to monitor everything on the computer if we accessed their webpages or just what we do on that exact page/site?

 

[KALLT]

I dont know anything about the web so I want to ask a stupid question: are those web owners able to monitor everything on the computer if we accessed their webpages or just what we do on that exact page/site?

It is the latter. However, websites can request some special access, e.g. to your camera or location. This is something you can turn off in most browser settings, including Safari. If you are using any internet plugins, such as Java or Flash, then you do have to be careful, because these can act as trojan horses (I mean that metaphorically, not in the malware sense) and give websites deeper access to your computer. You should remove them, turn them off or restrict their access to specific websites only.

 

[Phil A.]

Don't see anything creepy about that to be honest - so the site knows when you're moving your mouse and clicking buttons and what browser you're using.


That's not exactly a breach of privacy!

 

[twinlight]

I was expecting a summary of website data and my device and browser capabilities returned that makes up my face to the internet and then see a list of what sites use to monitor me and my online activities, like different sites cookies, ad networks data, facebook usage and so on.

This only followed my pointer and if I was in the window or not..

 

[KALLT]

Don't see anything creepy about that to be honest - so the site knows when you're moving your mouse and clicking buttons and what browser you're using.

That's not exactly a breach of privacy!

Perhaps not on its own, but if everything is put together? How you move your cursor can identify you if other data is available about you. It is called fingerprinting. Check out this website for a test: https://panopticlick.eff.org.

 

[997440]

Perhaps not on its own, but if everything is put together? How you move your cursor can identify you if other data is available about you. It is called fingerprinting. Check out this website for a test: https://panopticlick.eff.org.

Some headway being made at Mozilla.

Mozilla announced the introduction of a new privacy protection mechanism to Firefox 52 that prevents websites from fingerprinting through system fonts.
[...]

http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/54938/digital-id/firefox-52-privacy.html