This New Kind of “Supercookie” Works Even if You’re in Incognito Mode, on a VPN, or Have Flushed Your Cache

How many tabs do you have open right now? Whether at work or at home, it’s become commonplace for most of us to be overloaded with tabs. And what’s the common thing with all of them, which helps us quickly identify which is which? That’s right – Favicons. But what at first glance appears to be just a harmless little picture now has the potential to be an unstoppable tracking vector.

Researchers from the University of Illinois, Chicago have recently discovered a way to use favicons as a tracking device, suddenly transforming them into a security and/or privacy vulnerability. Websites can now theoretically track your footprints online, regardless of whether or not you’re taking the traditional steps to keep your activity private. We’re talking about a way of tracking that circumvents Browser incognito modes, VPN connections, and cache flushing/deleting cookies.

So, what is the favicon tracking method and how does it work? What browsers are susceptible to the vulnerability? And how can you prevent this sort of tracking as you’re surfing the web?

Let’s hash it out.

The post New Browser Hack Lets Sites Track You Via Favicons appeared first on Hashed Out by The SSL Store™.