We present the first large-scale studies of three advanced web
tracking mechanisms — canvas fingerprinting, evercookies
and use of “cookie syncing” in conjunction with evercookies.
Canvas fingerprinting, a recently developed form of browser
fingerprinting, has not previously been reported in the wild;
our results show that over 5% of the top 100,000 websites
employ it. We then present the first automated study of
evercookies and respawning and the discovery of a new ev-
ercookie vector, IndexedDB. Turning to cookie syncing, we
present novel techniques for detection and analysing ID flows
and we quantify the amplification of privacy-intrusive track-
ing practices due to cookie syncing.
tracking mechanisms — canvas fingerprinting, evercookies
and use of “cookie syncing” in conjunction with evercookies.
Canvas fingerprinting, a recently developed form of browser
fingerprinting, has not previously been reported in the wild;
our results show that over 5% of the top 100,000 websites
employ it. We then present the first automated study of
evercookies and respawning and the discovery of a new ev-
ercookie vector, IndexedDB. Turning to cookie syncing, we
present novel techniques for detection and analysing ID flows
and we quantify the amplification of privacy-intrusive track-
ing practices due to cookie syncing.
Our evaluation of the defensive techniques used by
privacy-aware users finds that there exist subtle pitfalls —
such as failing to clear state on multiple browsers at once
— in which a single lapse in judgement can shatter privacy
defenses. This suggests that even sophisticated users face
great difficulties in evading tracking techniques
more here.......................https://securehomes.esat.kuleuven.be/~gacar/persistent/the_web_never_forgets.pdf