The thing with the internet is that it's terrifying. All browsers contain dozens of exploits that destroy your security and make some of your information publicly visble. This is meant to be a collection of these tools and exploits to help people learn about the actual nature of your privacy on the internet.
- Date and Time - http://browserspy.dk/date.php
- Your Browser - http://browserspy.dk/browser.php
- Your OS - http://browserspy.dk/os.php
- Whether you're on mobile or not - http://browserspy.dk/capabilities.php
- Your browser history (sorta) - http://browserspy.dk/css-exploit.php
- Your location - http://browserspy.dk/geolocation.php
- Your language - Still http://browserspy.dk/headers.php
- Your installed plugins - http://browserspy.dk/plugins.php?detail=1
- Fonts(This uses Flash so ummmm...) - http://browserspy.dk/fonts-flash.php
- Fonts(Using Java this time) - http://browserspy.dk/fonts-java.php
- The size of your window - http://browserspy.dk/window.php
- Supercookies(Deletion-Resistant cookies) - https://samy.pl/evercookie/
- Passwords!? - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/browser-autofill-used-to-steal-personal-details-in-new-phising-attack-chrome-safari
- Accounts(for Google and other popular sites) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11415462
- Keystrokes - https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/59yexk/princeton-study-session-replay-scripts-tracking-you
- Cursor location - https://clickclickclick.click
- Tab inactivity(Whether you've clicked off the site) - still https://clickclickclick.click
While all this info might seem useless to some people(except maybe your location and passwords, those are creepy), it actually might lead to a much larger problem known as fingerprinting. Fingerprinting is defined as "a list of characteristics that are unique to a single user". They are similar to cookies which are small chunks of information that websites store in your browser however they are much harder to remove. While cookies rely on just data of your hard drive, digital fingerprints are tied to things like hardware, location and browser settings, things that most people won't(or can't) change.
This is really bad, fingerprints can follow you cross-website and as long as this trove of data about you is linked back to you, your online activity will be logged. This allows for incredibly precise targeted advertising that can use anything from political affiliation to education level to income bracket. It also allows for malicious parties to do pretty much anything they want to do with this info.
Fingerprinting isn't the only issue though. There are other ways that this information could be used maliciously such as someone luring you to a website that steals your location, operating system, etc. and uses it to bully you whether in real life or online. This might not be a big problem to adults but to teens, it could be devastating. Not just that but certain companies could use this information to decide on how much you're paid. Imagine other people being paid less than you just because they live in a developing country or speak a different language. That's terrible and shouldn't be something that's even remotely possible.
Well, there's a much larger issue here about how privacy is treated like a luxury rather than a right but your individual security and privacy can be improved through some surprisingly simple tactics:
Use the Privacy Badger browser extension by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
It's good, easy to download and is very robust in it's tracker and ad-blocking abilities as long as you give it time to learn what trackers should be blocked. You can also allow certain trackers in case it breaks a website or just disable it entirely.
The more similar you are to the rest, the harder you are to fingerprint. Both Chrome and Firefox work fine for this and have their own pros and cons. I am biased but I recommend Firefox, it prides itself on how privacy-focused it is and I can vouch for it. It's fully open source(Although the code is incredibly hard to navigate) so if you don't trust me, check for yourself.
Here is where things get very tricky. Javascript is an integral part of the internet and disabling it renders most websites unusable. However Javascript is also an integral part of most trackers and it really trips them up when you disable it so I believe that here is where you should make a choice. You either disable Javascript, removing most of the functionality of some websites or keep it enabled, knowing that a dirty tracker could use it to its advantage. If you do decide to remove Javascript entirely, I recommend the NoScript Firefox Extension. It allows you to activate scripts on certain sites and actually protects you against bad things other than Javascript.
Most popular browsers come with lots of privacy-based settings for you to use. Firefox and Chrome both come with decent tracker blockers disabled in their settings somewhere. Your job is just to find them! Although I do have to admit that some of these settings are imperfect and most other methods on this list would be better.
This might seem weird considering we just told you to use a common browser but certain newer browsers are better than ever at catching and demolishing trackers. One of these browsers is Tor which is incredibly difficult to fingerprint because the fingerprint of everyone using it is almost the exact same.
The easiest one on this list. Don't click random links, don't give out your personal info and just use common sense.
Hope this helped!
Most of this information was found on(and blatantly stolen from) the Electronic Frontier Foundation