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Chrome Extension Keeps Sites From Identifying You By Your Typing Habits

If you value your privacy online then chances are you use a tracker-blocking plugin like Ghostery as well as and ad-blocker. Here’s another Chrome extension that you should add to your browser.

Developed by Paul Moore, Keyboard Privacy picks up where Ghostery leaves off. This extension is designed to thwart attempts to identify and track users based on their keyboard typing habits. It randomizes the rate at which characters are sent to a website when you are typing.

keyboard privacy

I know this sounds paranoid at first, but your typing patterns are unique and can be used to identify you. Banks already use this trick to prevent fraud, and it won’t be long before tracking companies use it widely (if they’re not already).

Per Thorsheim, the founder of PasswordsCon, explains why that is a problem: "as soon as somebody manages to build a biometric profile of your keystrokes at a network/website where you are otherwise completely anonymous, that same profile can be used to identify you at other sites you’re using, were identifiable information is available about you."

He says that he’s already built a site which proves that this is possible. "I created and trained a biometric profile of my keystroke dynamics using the Tor browser at a demo site. I then switched over to Google Chrome and not using the Tor network, and the demo site correctly identified me when logging in and completing a demo financial transaction."

You can find the extension in the Chrome Web Store. A Firefox plugin is also in the works.

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Comments


Muratcan Simsek July 28, 2015 um 3:34 pm

All of this is nice but ultimately useless. Our browser’s have fingerprints, as long as you use the same browser, you leave a recognizable mark behind you. Check this: https://panopticlick.eff.org


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