Web Security, External Webpage Resources, and Their Threats to Your Privacy
- GDPR - updated on 2022-03-26
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- 2021-03-17
Some web sites claim in their privacy policy that your browsing data are only stored locally and are not shared online in the cloud or with other 3rd parties, but this often is not true.
Indeed, when you visit a web site, you should be aware that your data shared while browsing can be tracked, especially when web counters, cookies, or other forms of data collection are enabled by the web company's privacy policy. How many of us read the fine print?
How can they trace you?
For example, many websites use “Google fonts” as external resources. Other web sites embed external videos or maps inside a page.
This article written by Yuli Stremovsky of Privacy Bunker (Google Fonts can bring you to GDPR fines) describes a violation case.
How can you check which resources are loaded by the browser?
On Mozilla Firefox, you can active the Firefox Web Console and view all the external network resources accessed by that web page by clicking Ctrl + Shift + K or by clicking the three-lines menu.
The following screenshots show you how to access the Firefox Web Console from the three-lines menu.
