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You are likely being tracked online by a sneaky, new technology that works without your consent, and can track you even if you use anti-tracking toolbars or strict privacy settings.

How is this possible?

Historically, to track you, a website sent cookies or files to your computer, or examined various properties of your device. Anti-tracking systems, therefore, block these types of activities. The new tracking system, however, does not transmit cookies or files, and does not need to read unique properties; to web browsers – and to anti-tracking tools – its mechanism appears to operate like that of a normal webpage.

So how does it work?

When you visit a website that employs Canvas Fingerprinting, as the new sneaky system is known, the site sends your web browser a request to generate a hidden image consisting of some text. Because individual computers have operating system versions, browsers, fonts, graphics adapters, etc. that vary from one to another, there are slight variations between the way text appears in an image on one computer from the way it does on the next. The images of text, are, therefore, like computers’ fingerprints; by analyzing them and tracking what type of image a particular computer generates, different websites utilizing the same tracking system can track a user from site to site – even if he or she is using Incognito Mode, strict browser privacy settings, or an anti-tracking tool.

Strictly speaking, it’s actually the computers that are being tracked – not the people using them. But that’s still quite scary – especially since many people are the sole users of their computers and mobile devices, and because once other information is added into the mix, the identification and tracking can often be refined down to the actual human user level.

Who is doing the tracking?

Social-bookmarking provider AddThis is believed to have begun using canvas fingerprinting earlier this year. Websites that are believed to have utilized canvas fingerprinting from AddThis range from the White House to YouPorn. (YouPorn claims to have turned off canvas fingerprinting after being made aware of its presence in AddThis; the White House has made no such claim – even though the use of canvas fingerprinting seems, at least to me, to be a violation of its own privacy policy.)

What does this mean? Am I being tracked?

Even if you are using Incognito mode, anti-tracking toolbars, or strict privacy settings in your web browser, you can be tracked, and there is a pretty good chance that you are being tracked. That means that when you visit any particular website the operator of that site could know what other sites you have visited in the past – even if you don’t want them to know.

Is device fingerprinting new?

While canvas fingerprinting gained public awareness in 2012 and became a practical problem recently, device fingerprinting technologies in general go back many years. Authentication systems (such as the one I designed for Green Armor) and anti-fraud solutions have used various forms of fingerprinting for over a decade. But that fingerprinting was, and is, used to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing people’s private accounts or stealing their money and data; it was not used for surreptitiously tracking a user’s actions between websites or to target the user for advertising. Even when such systems were ultimately leveraged by marketers, anti-tracking systems that masked browser properties remained generally effective.

The use of advanced fingerprinting technologies, such as canvas fingerprinting, for purposes of tracking people who wish not to be tracked is a different situation and highly problematic. While research into canvas-like fingerprinting was previously done by cybersecurity product vendors, and others have discussed it in the past, the problem was recently brought to the forefront by a paper written by researchers from Princeton and  KU Leuven Universities that documented the magnitude of its current use.

How can I avoid being tracked?

One can argue that you should always assume that you are being tracked; there is no foolproof way to fully anonymize anything on the Internet, and there is no way to know if some new tracking system is tracking you in an, as of yet, undetectable and/or unblockable way (as was the case with canvas fingerprinting until recently). There are some ways to improve your odds, however, if you are willing to sacrifice some convenience; you should be aware, however, that it is possible that your efforts will not actually succeed in stopping the tracking. Here are some possibilities:

1. Privacy Badger is a new tool that claims to block canvas fingerprinting (it is new – so time will tell…)


2. You can use Tor web browser (which may seem complicated for some people)


3. You can use the Chameleon web browser which is designed to block tracking (although it is not simple to install and use like the major browsers)


4. You can turn off JavaScript in your browser (although that will likely cause various websites not to work properly)


5. You can use a very old web browser (although that may introduce other security risks that may be far worse than being tracked)

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The latest version of Apple’s (AAPL) Mac operating system, OS X Yosemite, will become available for the public in a beta version starting Thursday.

The consumer tech giant stirred excitement for Yosemite last month at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). There, Apple provided a teaser into how it is expanding its ever-evolving ecosystem of devices. The emphasis was on connectivity. A feature called “Handoff”, for example, lets users seamlessly transition whatever it is they’re doing on one device – making a phone call, working on a report – onto another.

Developers have had the chance to experiment with the software since its June announcement. Now, users will get their chance to test it out.

To do so, you need to sign up for Apple’s Beta Program. Then, the following day, you will receive an e-mail from Apple with a link and activation code that lets you to download the latest version of Yosemite. While users will not receive as many updates for their version as developers will, according to Wired, the public beta version will be updated to the same version available to all users once Yosemite is officially released this fall. But as Jim Dalrymple of The Loop points out, downloading software to your computer that’s still in development is never entirely safe. Consequently, users are advised to either back up their data or use a secondary Mac to download the software.

Yosemite comes with a built-in feedback assistant app that lets users report bugs or their overall thoughts on the software to Apple, though only one million users can participate in the program.

This news comes on the heels of Apple announcing that its quarterly earnings for this year’s third fiscal quarter were $37.4 billion in revenue, a 5.9 percent increase from last year. Its quarterly net profit was $7.7 billion.

“We’re thrilled with the results, and we’re thrilled with where we are going,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal. “The momentum is really strong.”

Those strong numbers are due mainly to sales of the company’s iPhone and Mac products. Apple sold 4.4 million Macs, up from 3.7 million the same time last year. Meanwhile, iPhone sales were 35 million, up from 31 million last year. But the company sagged in iPad sales, with only 13 million units sold, down from 14 million in the previous year.

Sagging iPad sales, analysts have noted, stem mainly from maturity in the tablet market and the penetration of “phablets” – smart phones with large screens. Consequently, as numerous news reports have noted, Apple will likely be releasing its new iPhone 6 some time by the end of this year. And this new phone will be available in two versions, one with a 4.7-inch screen and the other with a 5.5-inch screen.

But it is Apple’s penetration into China that accounts for much of the iPhone’s success of late. Apple said iPhone sales were up 55 percent in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, according to The Wall Street Journal, noting that iPhone sales rose 48 percent in China alone.