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Evercookie
Evercookie (also known as supercookie) is an open-source JavaScript application programming interface (API) that identifies and reproduces intentionally deleted cookies on the clients' browser storage. This behavior is known as a zombie cookie. It was created by Samy Kamkar in 2010 to demonstrate the possible infiltration from the websites that use respawning. Websites that have adopted this mechanism can identify users even if they attempt to delete the previously stored cookies.
In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked a top-secret NSA document that showed Evercookie can track Tor (anonymity networks) users. Many popular companies use functionality similar to Evercookie to collect user information and track users. Further research on fingerprinting and search engines also draws inspiration from Evercookie's ability to track a user persistently.
In the late 2010s, most modern browsers have implemented ways to get rid of evercookies with minimal manipulation, notably closing the evercookie tab and then clearing website data in the browser.
There are three commonly used data storages, including HTTP cookies, flash cookies, HTML5 Storage, and others. When the user visits a website for the first time, the web server may generate a unique identifier and store it on the user's browser or local space. The website can read and identify the user in its future visits with the stored identifier, and the website can save user's preferences and display marketing advertisements. Due to privacy concerns, all major browsers include mechanisms for deleting and/or refusing cookies from websites.
In response to the users' increased unwillingness to accept cookies, many websites employ methods to circumvent users' deletion of cookies. Started from 2009, many research teams found popular websites used flash cookies, ETags, and various other data storage to rebuild the deleted cookies by users, including hulu.com, foxnews.com, spotify.com, etc. In 2010, Samy Kamkar, a Californian programmer, built an Evercookie project to further illustrate the tracking mechanism with respawning across various storage mechanisms on browsers.
Evercookie allows website authors to be able to identify users even after said users have attempted to delete cookies. Samy Kamkar released v0.4 beta of the evercookie on September 13, 2010, as an open source project. Evercookie is capable of respawning deleted HTTP cookies by storing the cookies on multiple different storage systems typically exposed by web browsers. When a browser visits a website with the Evercookie API on its server, the web server can generate an identifier and store it on various storage mechanisms available on that browser. If the user removes some but not all of the stored identifiers on the browser and revisits the website, the web server retrieves the identifier from storage areas that the user failed to delete. Then the web server will copy and restore this identifier to the previously cleared storage areas.
By abusing the various available storage mechanisms, Evercookie creates persistent data identifiers, because users are unlikely to clear all storing mechanisms. From the list provided by Samy Kamkar, 17 storage mechanisms could be used for the v0.4 beta Evercookie when they are available on browsers:
Samy Kamkar claims that he did not intend to use the Evercookie project to violate internet user privacy or to sell to any parties for commercial use. However, it has served as an inspiration for other commercial websites that later implemented similar mechanisms to restore user-deleted cookies.[citation needed] The Evercookie project is open source, meaning everyone can access and examine the code, or use the code for any purpose. The project incorporates HTML5 as one of the storage mechanisms, which was released 6 months before the project and gained public attentions due to its added persistency. Kamkar wished his project could demonstrate how users' privacy can be infiltrated by contemporary tracking tools. In 2010, one way to prevent Evercookie respawning was a Firefox browser plug-in named "Anonymizer Nevercookie™".
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Evercookie AI simulator
(@Evercookie_simulator)
Evercookie
Evercookie (also known as supercookie) is an open-source JavaScript application programming interface (API) that identifies and reproduces intentionally deleted cookies on the clients' browser storage. This behavior is known as a zombie cookie. It was created by Samy Kamkar in 2010 to demonstrate the possible infiltration from the websites that use respawning. Websites that have adopted this mechanism can identify users even if they attempt to delete the previously stored cookies.
In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked a top-secret NSA document that showed Evercookie can track Tor (anonymity networks) users. Many popular companies use functionality similar to Evercookie to collect user information and track users. Further research on fingerprinting and search engines also draws inspiration from Evercookie's ability to track a user persistently.
In the late 2010s, most modern browsers have implemented ways to get rid of evercookies with minimal manipulation, notably closing the evercookie tab and then clearing website data in the browser.
There are three commonly used data storages, including HTTP cookies, flash cookies, HTML5 Storage, and others. When the user visits a website for the first time, the web server may generate a unique identifier and store it on the user's browser or local space. The website can read and identify the user in its future visits with the stored identifier, and the website can save user's preferences and display marketing advertisements. Due to privacy concerns, all major browsers include mechanisms for deleting and/or refusing cookies from websites.
In response to the users' increased unwillingness to accept cookies, many websites employ methods to circumvent users' deletion of cookies. Started from 2009, many research teams found popular websites used flash cookies, ETags, and various other data storage to rebuild the deleted cookies by users, including hulu.com, foxnews.com, spotify.com, etc. In 2010, Samy Kamkar, a Californian programmer, built an Evercookie project to further illustrate the tracking mechanism with respawning across various storage mechanisms on browsers.
Evercookie allows website authors to be able to identify users even after said users have attempted to delete cookies. Samy Kamkar released v0.4 beta of the evercookie on September 13, 2010, as an open source project. Evercookie is capable of respawning deleted HTTP cookies by storing the cookies on multiple different storage systems typically exposed by web browsers. When a browser visits a website with the Evercookie API on its server, the web server can generate an identifier and store it on various storage mechanisms available on that browser. If the user removes some but not all of the stored identifiers on the browser and revisits the website, the web server retrieves the identifier from storage areas that the user failed to delete. Then the web server will copy and restore this identifier to the previously cleared storage areas.
By abusing the various available storage mechanisms, Evercookie creates persistent data identifiers, because users are unlikely to clear all storing mechanisms. From the list provided by Samy Kamkar, 17 storage mechanisms could be used for the v0.4 beta Evercookie when they are available on browsers:
Samy Kamkar claims that he did not intend to use the Evercookie project to violate internet user privacy or to sell to any parties for commercial use. However, it has served as an inspiration for other commercial websites that later implemented similar mechanisms to restore user-deleted cookies.[citation needed] The Evercookie project is open source, meaning everyone can access and examine the code, or use the code for any purpose. The project incorporates HTML5 as one of the storage mechanisms, which was released 6 months before the project and gained public attentions due to its added persistency. Kamkar wished his project could demonstrate how users' privacy can be infiltrated by contemporary tracking tools. In 2010, one way to prevent Evercookie respawning was a Firefox browser plug-in named "Anonymizer Nevercookie™".