[Itpolicy-np] Race Is On to 'Fingerprint' Phones, PCs

[Bipin Gautam]

Future Ref: Stealthier Internet access (and do not judge a book by its
cover, and the CODE here is to follow the "ritual" while questioning
"knowledge" with "reasoning".)
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2010/May/331

Comment: This is NO REVOLUTION. This is the SHORTEST way to scrap-up
INTEL tools... Remember, I warned you! :)


Also, (FTC in Charge of Net Ads? -- and Opt-In vs. Opt Out)
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000737.html


( Back to the "Original" News Source :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704679204575646704100959546.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
)


IRVINE, Calif.—David Norris wants to collect the digital equivalent of
fingerprints from every computer, cellphone and TV set-top box in the
world.

Summary: Akamai Technologies Inc., an Internet-infrastructure giant
that says it delivers 15% to 30% of all Web traffic, is marketing a
technique to track people's online movements in more detail than
traditional tools easily can.
...
"I think cookies are a joke," Mr. Norris says. "The system is archaic
and was invented by accident. We've outgrown it, and it's time for the
next thing."


Details: Companies are developing digital fingerprint technology to
identify how we use our computers, mobile devices and TV set-top
boxes. WSJ's Simon Constable talks to Senior Technology Editor Julia
Angwin about the next generation of tracking tools.

...So far, Mr. Norris's start-up company, BlueCava Inc., has
identified 200 million devices. By the end of next year, BlueCava says
it expects to have cataloged one billion of the world's estimated 10
billion devices.

Advertisers no longer want to just buy ads. They want to buy access to
specific people. So, Mr. Norris is building a "credit bureau for
devices" in which every computer or cellphone will have a "reputation"
based on its user's online behavior, shopping habits and demographics.
He plans to sell this information to advertisers willing to pay top
dollar for granular data about people's interests and activities.

Device fingerprinting is a powerful emerging tool in this trade. It's
"the next generation of online advertising," Mr. Norris says.

...

It might seem that one computer is pretty much like any other. Far
from it: Each has a different clock setting, different fonts,
different software and many other characteristics that make it unique.
 Every time a typical computer goes online, it broadcasts hundreds of
such details as a calling card to other computers it communicates
with. Tracking companies can use this data to uniquely identify
computers, cellphones and other devices, and then build profiles of
the people who use them.
...
Tracking companies are now embracing fingerprinting partly because it
is much tougher to block than other common tools used to monitor
people online, such as browser "cookies," tiny text files on a
computer that can be deleted.

...
Ad companies are constantly looking for new techniques to heighten
their surveillance of Internet users.
...

There are hundreds of parameters. "We call them the 'toys on the
table,'" says Mr. Norris of BlueCava. "Everyone has the same toys on
the table. It's how you rearrange them or look at them that is the
secret sauce" used to fingerprint a specific computer.
...
His idea: Configure his software to work only after it was linked to a
unique computer. So, he developed a way to catalog each computer's
individual properties. He found many subtle variations, among even
outwardly similar machines.

"It was amazing how different they were," he says. "There are
literally hundreds of things you can measure."
...
Unlike most other fraud-prevention companies, BlueCava plans to merge
its fraud data with its advertising data.
...

Greg Pierson, chief executive of iovation, says the company will never
disclose specific information about people's Web-browsing behavior,
"because it's unnecessary and it's dangerous. It's close to spying."
...