DocumentCode :
265685
Title :
Click-tracking blocker: Privacy preservation by disabling search engines´ click-tracking
Author :
Alberdeston, Roberto ; Dondyk, Erich ; Zou, Cliff C.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
fYear :
2014
fDate :
8-12 Dec. 2014
Firstpage :
570
Lastpage :
575
Abstract :
On a search engine result page, if a user clicks on any one of those contained URL links, whether it is a search result website (called organic link), or a search related advertisement link (called sponsored link), the user´s click action will be tracked by returning back to the search engine first and then redirecting to the corresponding target website. This click-tracking is conducted by all three major search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo (although Bing does not track clicks on organic links). Many people are not aware that their clicks are tracked by search companies; and this click-tracking imposes a big privacy threat for privacy-concerned users. After discovering that all organic and sponsored links in a search engine result page actually encode the real URLs of target websites with simple encoding techniques, we have developed a browser plug-in program called Click-Tracking Blocker that modifies all URLs on search result pages once they are retrieved by users´ computers, such that search engines will no longer be able to track users´ clicking behaviors on both organic links and sponsored links. Click-Tracking Blocker can be readily and easily installed by end users to protect their privacy, works for all three major search engines, and does not affect users´ search experience.
Keywords :
data privacy; search engines; Bing; Google; URL links; Yahoo; click-tracking blocker; organic link; privacy preservation; privacy threat; search companies; search engines; search related advertisement link; search result website; sponsored link; Browsers; Google; Privacy; Search engines; Servers; Target tracking; Uniform resource locators; search engine click tracking; sponsored links; user privacy;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), 2014 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Austin, TX
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/GLOCOM.2014.7036868
Filename :
7036868
Link To Document :
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