The Atlantic

Your Browsing History Alone Can Give Away Your Identity

Researchers have found a way to connect the dots between people’s private online activity and their Twitter accounts—even for people who have never tweeted.<br />
Source: Yuri Arcurs / Getty

Advertisers would give just about anything to be able to lurk over your shoulder as you browse the internet. They want to know what sites you visit, how you get to them, how long you spend on them, and where you go next—along with as much personal information about you as they can get.

Of course, they don’t have to be in the room to figure any of that out. Dozens of trackers embedded in nearly every website collect information about how you interact with the page, and cookies stored in your browser tell advertisers how often you’ve visited the site before. But the holy

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