OT: Is there any way for someone to see my MAC address over the internet?

[Richard Gaskin]

Michael D Mays wrote:

> Is there any way for someone to see any personal information about my machine over the internet via a web browser?

The user-agent string can be used in some circumstances for limited user 
tracking:

Browser Versions Carry 10.5 Bits of Identifying Information on Average
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent>

You can see your user-agent at this site:
<http://whatsmyuseragent.com/>

There are other methods of tracking your movement from site to site, but 
as with user-agent strings they're very limited to all but court-ordered 
ISPs.

One can use Tor (there's a Firefox plugin available) to mask your IP, 
and there are also plugins for modifying your user-agent as well.

Ironically, it's been said that making any obvious change to your 
security setup may make your movements more interesting to systems like 
Carnivore and Echelon than just leaving things with their defaults.

For myself, as interesting as Tor is it's way overkill for my own needs.

I run with NoScript and a cookie blocker on, selectively activating 
scripts and cookies as needed.  Even that's at the edge of what my 
patience can endure, but at least I get to decide when I'm being 
cookie-tracked.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv