Each Person’s Internet History Is Unique

The Sensitive Internet View History

Internet history is sensitive for each person. Some people even say that they would rather be charged for the crime they have never committed to than showing their internet history to the court to prove their innocence.

Internet history contains a large amount of information, whose data size has already reached the requirement of psychological measurement and census. And the data will not change significantly, as people’s preference always remain stable. For users, internet history is unique, as they tend to surf the contents that fit with their interests.

To some extent, internet history can be regarded as a biometric signature, as each person’s Internet history is unique.

The Unique Internet History of Each Person

Among 2009 and 2011, there had already been research to prove that internet history was unique for each user. We could identify specific user through his/her internet view collection, with an accuracy of 97%. In addition, in 38% of the cases, web view signatures were stable during a certain time. And the report also found out that the uniqueness was still apparent even internet views were limited to the 50 most popular websites.

In 2020, the situation differs. Nowadays, the scale of online personal data is much larger. Fortunately, the conclusion is once again proved to be correct.

Confirmation: Internet History Is Unique

A recent research conducted by Sarah Bird, Ilana Segall, and Martin Lopatka from Mozilla in 2020, reconducted the originally research through sophisticated statistics, which can evaluate the reliability of users’ web view list in a more rigorous way.

The team had check 52,000 Firefox users’ browsing profile in two weeks, and conducted a deep analysis based on the data they collected.

Using the similar analytical method as the previous research, they reaffirmed that browsing fingerprints had 99% uniqueness. They also pointed out that the fingerprint can be used to identify users in 80% cases.

What’s more, the Mozilla team have also proved other previous states. For example, it’s enough for us to acquire the unique fingerprint with the 50 most popular websites.