For years,Sucking off a Man Caught Between Woman’s Legs antivirus software from Kaspersky Lab may have given online marketers a way to track your web browsing habits.
Although the company's products are designed to protect PCs from cyber threats, Kaspersky Lab chose a questionable way to prevent malicious activity on the web pages you visit. The products inject a piece of Javascript code into your internet browser, which can tell you if a website is clean or not.
There's just one problem: The same Javascript code will also tag your machine with a unique identifier that any website you visit can read. For example, the code and the identifier can look like this: "https://gc.kis.v2.scr.kaspersky-labs.com/9344FDA7-AFDF-4BA0-A915-4D7EEB9A6615/main.js."
Ronald Eikenberg, a journalist at German computer magazine c't, noticed the code and realized its privacy ramifications. "Any website can read the user's Kaspersky ID and use it for tracking. If the same Universally Unique Identifier comes back, or appears on another website of the same operator, they can see that the same computer is being used," he wrote on Thursday.
The tech industry calls this "cross-site tracking," and many advertising networks as well as Facebook have used similar approaches involving internet cookies and plugins placed across mainstream web services to follow users from site to site. In Kaspersky's case, the company will generate a different identifier for each machine the antivirus software is installed on, and the identifier will persist, remaining permanent, according to Eikenberg. "Worse yet, the super tracking can even overcome the browser's Incognito mode," he added.
Since fall 2015, the company has been injecting Javascript code via its various products, including Kaspersky Lab Internet Security and Kaspersky Lab Free Anti-Virus. Eikenberg even created a website to test whether he could extract and read the Kaspersky Lab's unique identifier. It turns out he could, which made him wonder: "If I was able to create a website in a short period of time that reads and saves the IDs, why couldn't others have done it at some point in the last four years?"
Kaspersky Lab is downplaying the privacy risks. "After our internal research, we have concluded that such scenarios of [a user data] privacy compromise are theoretically possible but are unlikely to be carried out in practice, due to their complexity and low profitability for cybercriminals," the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, Kaspersky has changed its process for checking web pages for malicious activity by removing the unique identifier for each machine. According to Eikenberg, the identifiers will remain identical for all machines on which Kaspersky Lab's security software is installed. However, this approach can also be problematic; it can still tip off a website that you're using Kaspersky Lab's security software, which can be valuable information to a hacker.
"They may use that information to distribute malware tailored to the protection software, or to redirect the browser to a suitable scamming page," he added. "Imagine something along the lines of 'Your Kaspersky license has expired. Please enter your credit card number to renew your subscription.'"
If you're worried about the security risks, Kaspersky Lab offers a way for customers to turn off the Javascript injection. That said, online tracking and shady data collection have already become pervasive on the internet through free apps such as Facebook, Gmail, Instagram, and Google's Chrome browser, which can record all the sites you visit. To stay safe, you can consult our guide.
Topics Cybersecurity Privacy
Cibao FC vs. Guadalajara 2025 livestream: Watch Concacaf Champions Cup for free
Whiting Awards 2020: Jake Skeets, Poetry
Poetry Rx: Poems for Social Distancing by Claire Schwartz
Bread, Banana, Apple, Milk, Goodbye by Jennifer Tseng
Will Oracle take over TikTok? Trump says he'll make a decision in 30 days
Whiting Awards 2020: Jaquira Díaz, Nonfiction
Wordle today: The answer and hints for December 25
Apple Watch import ban timeline: 7 events that got Apple into this mess
Here's how I feel about all this Stephen Hawking 'news' going around
Jonathan Escoffery Wins Plimpton Prize; Leigh Newman Wins Terry Southern Prize by The Paris Review
The Year in Tech: 2014 Top Stories
Redux: Pull the Language in to Such a Sharpness by The Paris Review
Staff Picks: Cinema, Sebald, and Small Surprises by The Paris Review
Wordle today: The answer and hints for December 23
Clean energy projects soared in 2016 as solar and wind got cheaper
Long Weekend by Michael DeForge
A free Blackpink concert is coming to VR on Dec. 26
The Rooms by Jill Talbot
Super Bowl LIX livestream: Watch Eagles vs Chiefs on Tubi
Teenage 'GTA 6' hacker sentenced to an indefinite hospital stay
Facebook reportedly omitted Russia references from a public report on the electionMashReads Podcast: Getting nostalgic over hope and change with former Obama speechwriter David LittComfort dogs are helping people with the trauma of the Las Vegas shootingFacebook execs (somewhat) embrace transparency, via Twitter'The Walking Dead' will finally cross over with 'Fear,' says Robert KirkmanWanted man taunts police on Facebook, it backfires big time'Rick and Morty' coHow to hold private companies accountable for data breachesSay hello to Apple's new iOS 11 emojiBlackBerry's next phone appears to counter trends with enormous bezel'Game of Thrones' star Nathalie Emmanuel posts anti10 tricks for saving your phone's battery lifeHow to hold private companies accountable for data breachesDownload this: Apple Music's Facebook bot suggests songs based on emojiStern little Stormtrooper robot uses AR and facial recognition to help you deal with rebel scumPeople are pissed about 'Star Wars Battlefront II' loot boxesHurricane Nate intensifies as it takes aim at vulnerable Gulf CoastFacebook reportedly omitted Russia references from a public report on the electionWhy understanding the political influence of social media extends beyond RussiaPremium esports shows are heading to Hulu 25 wildlife photos that show nature at its most beautiful, weird, and brutal Kérastase's K CPUs Don't Matter For 4K Gaming... Wrong! Starbucks Cold Foam Days: How to get free free cold foam Elon Musk and DOGE reportedly tried (and failed) to take over the U.S. Copyright Office Elon Musk books a flight to space with...Virgin Galactic? Revisiting the GeForce GTX 680: GTX 1050 Ti Best portable power station deal: Save over $300 on Bluetti AC180 Best Levoit vacuum deal: $50 off at Amazon I Played 3 Hours of Dragon Age: Inquisition and It's Awesome Best earbuds deal: Save $90 on the Bose Ultra Open Private astronaut brings Columbia Space Shuttle relic to space station The Apple iPod: Pocket Music Before That Phone The Fat Bear Week contenders are here, and they're all impressively fat What happens when you're banned from dating apps Why Upgrading a Gaming PC Right Now is Almost Pointless PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) CPU Test JBL Quantum 200 Gaming Headset deal: Get $29.95 off Wordle today: The answer and hints for May 5, 2025 Why are we obsessed with body counts again?
2.9491s , 8229.5859375 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Sucking off a Man Caught Between Woman’s Legs】,Evergreen Information Network