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

[Michael Kann]

In a similar vein: http://www.modernizr.com/ 

The idea is to find out what the browser can do so you can tailor your webpage to match. It could probably be used to find unique voters as well.

Mike

--- On Fri, 8/26/11, Björnke von Gierke <bvg at mac.com> wrote:

From: Björnke von Gierke <bvg at mac.com>
Subject: Re: OT: Is there any way for someone to see my MAC address over the internet?
To: "How to use LiveCode" <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>
Date: Friday, August 26, 2011, 8:29 PM

Your friend is wrong (mostly). It's actually easy to identify browsers by data that is available free with each request:

cookies (or the information that cookies are blocked)
flash equivalent of cookies
html 5 local storage
IP (often regionally bound, and at least isp or IP owner can be known)
browser version
OS used
MAC address (at least up to your intranet router)
traceroute info
typical ping time / ping disabled
language settings
time zone

Java script also allow all kinds of information, for example:
types of browser plugins
parts of the history
screen size, window size
list of installed fonts 
other visited site

the list goes on and on


It is not trivial, but using and aggregating all available information, any site you visit can create a kind of fingerprint that uniquely identifies your computer out of millions. if the snooper would use an ad network, he can create targeted information, and aggregate several browsers/machines you use together.

See also here for more details: https://panopticlick.eff.org/
or the actual research paper: http://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf

On 25 Aug 2011, at 23:27, Bob Sneidar wrote:

> I am chatting with a web guy that used to work for us. He is very talented. He works for a company that did the recent Blizzard Cataclysm web site. He says there is no way to do that from the internet without installing something. 
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> On Aug 25, 2011, at 1:41 PM, Michael D Mays wrote:
> 
>> Thanks to everyone for the information. I was at a users seminar for a company I am involved with which is using a web survey. The presenter said they had "proprietary technology" which could identify computers uniquely and insure that only one machine (because we all know everyone only has one connection to the web :)  participated in the survey. I am really very  doubtful but if such were true I am very concerned.
>> 
>> Michael
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