New web privacy system prevents your data from leaking to other sites One of the biggest threats to your online privacy is the mixture of code that youll find on some websites. Its all too easy for a legit-looking page to hide data-stealing code, or for innocent sites to accidentally expose your info. If Google, Mozilla and researchers have their way, though, you wont have to worry quite so much about where that info is going. Their new COWL (Confinement with Origin Web Labels) system prevents JavaScript from sharing data with outside websites that arent explicitly approved; even when the data gets the all-clear, it wont necessarily spread anywhere else. In theory, it should be harder for neer-do-wells to hijack a page and grab sensitive content without your knowledge, or simply for you to lose control of where that content goes. You wont have to wait long if you want to try this security measure for yourself, since COWL will be available to use with both Chromium and Firefox browsers on October 15th. Dont expect it to help out much at first -- web developers will still have to implement the labeling system for it to be useful. If it takes off, however, you wont (usually) have to fret that seemingly trustworthy online services are really swiping your account details behind the scenes. [Image credit: Getty Images] Filed under: Internet, Software, Google Comments Source: COWL, University College London ift.tt/1ts7xDf
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 18:08:35 +0000
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