CSS tracking trick can monitor your mouse without JavaScript

guest · May 9, 2019

CSS tracking trick can monitor your mouse without JavaScript
May 9, 2019
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/20...ck-can-monitor-your-mouse-without-javascript/

A security researcher has demoed a new way to track web visitors’ mouse movements even when they’re using ad blockers or plugins that block JavaScript.
As explained on Twitter by Davy Wybiral and in conversation with Bleeping Computer, this works by exploiting the CSS hover effect, which can be used to activate a visual effect when the user’s mouse moves over it.

As the mouse moves over different areas of an invisible HTML grid on the page, different background images are requested from the server. The server owner can look at the names of the images being requested and map them to the different parts of the grid to see how the user’s mouse moved over the page.

Why would an advertiser care? Because mouse movements tell them a lot about what interests users on pages, including how long they spent on different elements when performing actions such as scrolling.
Click to expand...

At first, it sounds like a lot of effort to capture data this way, and it would still need interpretation. It would also be easy to spot in source code. But the fact it would bypass today’s blockers might give it legs.
Click to expand...

mirimir · May 9, 2019

OK, so I like my privacy.

But why do I care that some site can see my mouse movements over the browser window? If they could see other desktop stuff, then I'd care. But in the browser?

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CSS tracking trick can monitor your mouse without JavaScript

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