Putting a spotlight on web’s dark arts

JOHN ROLFE A WORLD-LEADING expert in the dark arts of big data is urging Australians to protect themselves as authorities around the globe struggle to bring digital platforms into line.

With Facebook reeling amid the growing scandal over the harvesting of 50 million US users’ data without consent, social networks specialist Alan Mislove told News Corp people should immediately install “tracker-blockers” on computers and smartphones so their internet usage can’t be secretly logged.

This monitoring is done via share buttons commonly found on websites.

The mere presence of the share buttons allows social media platforms to track visitor activity – that is, the snooping occurs without clicking on the icons.

“Speaking personally, the first thing I do when I get a new computer is install tracking blockers,” said Prof Mislove, who proved Facebook leaks your phone number and that its ad explanations can be “misleading”.

Specifically, he recommended the installation of uBlock Origin, Ghostery or Disconnect.

He also advised using tracking blockers available for web browsers on mobile devices, which are called content blockers.

Prof Mislove, from Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science in the US, recently published research revealing “Facebook’s advertising interface leaks sensitive personal information”.

“Malicious Facebook advertisers can infer the phone number of a user given only their email address” and whether you have visited a website controlled by the advertiser, the research found.

It ascertained this can be done without a user’s knowledge and would “enable adversaries to easily identify users’ mobile phone numbers … and allow website operators to de-anonymise users”.