How To See Everything Your Browser Knows About You

by David Nield

The second you log onto the internet, you start leaving a trace that’s more telling than you think. Browsers can not only identify where you are in the world, but they collect a ton of other data too, such as where your mouse is hovering and when you launch a private browser window. Here’s a way to find out exactly what you’re leaking.

For the full effect, turn your sound up—you’ll get scolded for leaving the window, for example—but be warned that there is swearing. The site is also able to compare your activity with the activity of other users and even guess information such as your gender from the way you’re using the site.

Webkay also displays a comprehensive list of everything websites can learn and guess about you, without asking for explicit permission, based on the data reported by your browser. Not only does it explain what’s collected, it also links to tools you can use to prevent some of the leaks from happening.

In the case of a lot of the entries you can install a NoScript browser extension (like NoScript Security Suite for Firefox or ScriptSafe for Chrome), which are able to block a lot of standard website sniffing code from being executed.

via thenextweb