My team has been doing this research for six years and I’ve asked myself this question many, many times. Here are my thoughts.https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/946866218962767872 …
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First, we do need *some* academic research, because tracking techniques have gotten so tricky that you do need Ph.D.-level smarts (and time commitment) to uncover them. I’ve been fortunate to work with
@s_englehardt and many other super smart people.1 reply 23 retweets 107 likesShow this thread -
But the software that we built for this research, OpenWPM, is open source, and usable by anyone who can program. Many others have used it, but almost all academic researchers. Why? Who are the other entities who could be doing this, and why haven’t they?https://github.com/citp/OpenWPM
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Let’s go through them one by one. 1. Investigative journalists should be doing this work, and some have, most notably
@JuliaAngwin and her team. In fact, it was their What They Know series way back in 2010 that inspired me to start researching the topic!http://www.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-2010.html …1 reply 27 retweets 126 likesShow this thread -
But the press could be doing *far* more. Why isn’t that happening? My guess: the financial troubles of journalism combined with inadequate tech expertise.
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Arvind Narayanan Retweeted Arvind Narayanan
2. Civil liberties organizations should be doing this work, because web privacy isn’t just about harms to individuals — it’s about a functioning democracy.https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/877908314222473216 …
Arvind Narayanan added,
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I think the main impediment is again tech expertise. The EFF is the most notable exception. They’ve done good work in this space, especially Privacy Badger, but I’d love to see more from them and for more such org's to hire technologists.https://www.eff.org/privacybadger
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Arvind Narayanan Retweeted Arvind Narayanan
3. Browser vendors should be doing this work, and their absence is conspicuous. Historically they’ve tried to be “neutral” on privacy, which I’ve criticized. This is starting to change (and we also have privacy-focused browsers like Brave).https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/943155973509828608 …
Arvind Narayanan added,
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Browsers shouldn't try to be neutral on privacy because neutrality is an illusion. http://randomwalker.info/publications/webtap-chapter.pdf …pic.twitter.com/Kgytxugoeo
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Replying to @random_walker
If sites are abusing tracking features like auto-login form systems, that’s a browser flaw.
2 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
There should never be auto-fill, only click-to-fill. That's how all my mobile browsers work.
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