Researchers have combined stolen web browser history data with membership of social networking groups to identify large numbers of users who would otherwise be anonymous, it was revealed this week.
The researchers, from the Technical University of Vienna, the Institute Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis and the University of California, Santa Barbara, used information about the memberships that social networking members had to social network groups. “This is often sufficient to uniquely identify this user,” they said. “When unique identification is not possible, then the attack might still significantly reduce the size of the set of candidates that the victim belongs to.”
Full story: Infosecurity (USA) – Researchers identify anonymous users through web browser history and social networks