Towards Understanding Privacy Implications of Adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs - Prof. Dr. Norbert Pohlmann
Towards Understanding Privacy Implications of Adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs | |
 | T. Holz, N. Pohlmann, D. Tatang, T. Urban: Web advertisements are the primary financial source for manyonline services, but also for cybercriminals. Successful ad campaigns relyon good online profiles of their potential customers. The financial potentials of displaying ads have led to the rise of malware that injects orreplaces ads on websites, in particular, so-called adware. This development leads to always further optimized and customized advertising. Forthese customization’s, various tracking methods are used. However, onlysparse work has gone into privacy issues emerging from adware. In this paper, we investigate the tracking capabilities and related privacy implications of adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). Therefore, we developed a framework that allows us to analyze any network communication of the Firefox browser on the application level tocircumvent encryption like TLS. We use this to dynamically analyze thecommunication streams of over 16,000 adware or potentially unwanted programs samples that tamper with the users’ browser session. Our results indicate that roughly 37 % of the requests issued by the analyzed samples contain private information and are accordingly able to track users. Additionally, we analyze which tracking techniques and servicesare used. More information on the subject “Towards Understanding the Impact of the GDPR on Online Advertisement”: “Beyond the Front Page: Measuring Third Party Dynamics in the Field” kostenlos downloaden |
| |