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Identifier

000445884

Title

Tracking mechanisms and the effect of user consent on the web

Alternative Title

Μηχανισμοί ιχνηλάτησης και η επίδραση της συναίνεσης του χρήστη στο διαδίκτυο

Author

Παπαδογιαννάκης, Εμμανουήλ Α.

Thesis advisor

Μαρκάτος, Ευάγγελος

Reviewer

Πλεξουσάκης, Δημήτρης
Κουρτέλλης, Νικόλαος
Παπαδόπουλος, Παναγιώτης

Abstract

During the past few years, mostly as a result of legislation such as the GDPR and the CCPA, websites have started presenting users with consent banners. These banners are web forms where users can state their preference regarding data processing purposes and declare which cookies they would like to accept. Although requesting consent before storing any identifiable information is a good start towards respecting the user privacy, previous research has shown that websites do not always respect user choices. Furthermore, considering not only the ever decreasing reliance of trackers on cookies, but also the actions browser vendors take by blocking or restricting third-party cookies, we anticipate a world where stateless tracking emerges, either because trackers or websites do not use cookies, or because users simply refuse to accept any. In this thesis, we explore whether websites use more persistent and sophisticated forms of tracking in order to track users who explicitly denied consent. Such forms of tracking include first-party ID leaking, third-party ID synchronization and browser fingerprinting. Using a novel web crawler, we examined the consent banners of over 27,000 websites and our results suggest that websites do use such modern forms of tracking even before users had the opportunity to register their consent choice. To add insult to injury, when users choose to raise their voice, deny consent and reject all cookies, user tracking only intensifies. We measured that aggressive tracking takes place before users had the opportunity to make a selection in the consent banner, with more than 75% of tracking activities happening when users chose to deny consent. Consequently, we conclude that user choices play very little role with respect to sophisticated tracking mechanisms.

Language

English

Subject

GDPR

User consent

User tracking

Web fingerprinting

Αποτυπώματα διαδικτύου

Ιχνηλάτηση χρηστών

Συναίνεση χρήστη

Issue date

2022-03-18