A browser extension named PRIVESHIELD automatically creates isolated profiles to group websites based on browsing history and user interaction, which disrupts cross-website tracking practices by preventing cookie-matching methods used for targeted advertising.
The evaluation results show that PRIVESHIELD is more than 90% effective in preventing ad exchanges from sharing user information.
In Real-time Bidding (RTB), ad exchanges act as intermediaries between Supply-side Platforms (SSPs) and Demand-side Platforms (DSPs).
SSPs manage ad inventory for publishers and DSPs manage ad campaigns for advertisers. During an RTB auction, DSPs place bids on ad impressions based on user information collected through cookies.
Cookie syncing allows SSPs and DSPs to synchronize their cookies and share user data, which enables DSPs to learn about users’ interests and demographics and deliver targeted ads.
It is essential for retargeted advertising as it allows advertisers to identify users across different websites, as third-party cookies are used for cookie syncing, but browsers can block third-party cookies, which limits the effectiveness of cookie syncing.
PRIVESHIELD is a browser extension that uses automatic profiles to store and manage data from different clusters of websites in isolated profiles to disrupt the cross-origin tracking cycle and prevent ad exchanges from using cookie-matching methods to implement retargeting practices on Internet users.
It achieves this by creating separate profiles for regular visited websites, websites where users spend a long time, websites where users interact with and websites that fall into specific categories.
The extension uses a combination of browsing history, time on website and user interaction with the website to determine which profile to use for a particular website.
When switching between profiles, PRIVESHIELD ensures that the cookies of each profile are stored separately in isolated storage.
It is a browser extension that protects users from retargeted ads by creating isolated profiles for different websites and achieves this by using event listeners to track user interactions and storing cookies in separate profiles.
The evaluation methods include testing on real-world scenarios and analyzing third-party cookie behavior, where the results show that PRIVESHIELD is effective in reducing retargeted ads and the performance overhead is minimal.
According to the research, the project implemented PRIVESHIELD, a privacy tool that disrupts cookie-syncing for retargeted ads and reuses existing browser functions to isolate cookies, minimizing performance impact and user experience disruption.
It achieves this by creating dedicated profiles for websites, hindering cross-site data sharing while allowing ads within a website category, which increases the difficulty of cookie-matching for advertisers, reducing the effectiveness of retargeting.
The evaluation demonstrated a significant reduction in retargeted ads based on cookie matching, although other tracking methods like fingerprinting remain a challenge, while future work will explore incorporating fingerprinting avoidance techniques while maintaining the tool’s lightweight design and minimal user impact.
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