Web Trackers Caught Intercepting Online Forms Even Before Users Hit Submit

A new research published by academics from KU Leuven, Radboud University, and the University of Lausanne has revealed that users’ email addresses are exfiltrated to tracking, marketing, and analytics domains before such information is submitted and without prior consent.

The study involved crawling 2.8 million pages from the top 100 websites, and found that as many as 1,844 websites allowed trackers to capture email addresses before form submission in the European Union, a number that jumped to 2,950 when the same set of websites were visited from the U.

One countermeasure against this tracking method is to install browser extensions such as uBlock Origin or switch to browsers that come with built-in ad blocking functionality, regardless of the type of device used.

“Users should assume that the personal information they enter into web forms may be collected by trackers—even if the form is never submitted,” the researchers concluded.

Read the full article here – https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/web-trackers-caught-intercepting-online.html