Drip, Drip, Drip

Presentation slides passed from the NSA whistleblower to the Washington Post reveal that the tracking method used by websites and advertisers, known as ‘cookies,’ also serves government snoops by identifying potential targets to hack.

The NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, have specifically found a way to analyze a Google-specific cookie known as the “PREF” cookie. While PREF data does not usually include a user’s personal information, it does carry codes that allow websites and intelligence analysts to determine an individual visitor.

The slides indicate that the data extracted from the cookies “enable remote exploitation.” This method does not require the NSA to sort through the massive stockpile of metadata it harvests every day; instead it allows analysts to target a single user.

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Also, an iPhone or Android user who leaves a browser application open on their device may be unwittingly transmitting their specific location to the NSA without being given a warning from their carrier.

“On a macro level, ‘we need to track everyone everywhere for advertising’ translates into ‘the government being able to track everyone everywhere,’” said Chris Hoofnagle, a lecturer at UC Berkley Law. “It’s hard to avoid

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California’s Silicon Valley – which became one of the dominant global industries thanks to the popularity of Apple, Google, Facebook, and others – is now poised to lose $35 billion in revenue as international users seek alternative options to avoid the NSA’s grasp.

  RT