I ran across an interesting article today that made a very striking claim about the new web browser by Google called Chrome. The author claimed that everything he typed into the address box while using Chrome was sent back to Google. He was making the statement that it looked to him as though Google Chrome was reporting to Google every word he typed into the address box.
This person was using Wireshark and technically this person was right that everything he typed in the address bar was being sent back out to Google via the "Get" statement which can be found in a Wireshark trace under the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) tab. But that was about all this person had correct. The rest of their claims were based upon a limited knowledge that they had in how Wireshark really works.
Wireshark is a free packet sniffing program that anyone can download and use. In fact you can find it at wwww.wireshark.org. Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer and is used by network professionals to examine network data. This can be very useful on business networks but can also be used by the home user as well. Let me give you a good example.
My wife Nancy has a web design company called First Coast Designs and one of the platforms she uses for web design was having server issues. Several times her sites were unavailable to her so she called the company and they told her each time that it was her Internet connection. Well to show them they were wrong we ran Wireshark the next time the sites were having issues. What we saw was a packet trace showing that the problem was on their side not ours. This info was sent to their IT staff and they then came clean and admitted that they had been having server issues.
Wireshark has a great many advantages, even to the novice user. The disadvantage is that you need a basic knowledge of protocols and how they work to use it. So the learning curve for Wireshark is quite steep. But if you put in a few hours you can get a good idea of how it works.
Ok now back to my original Blog topic...
I ran a trace while using Chrome and I ran another trace while using IE. There is not a whole lot of difference. Microsoft is doing the same thing as Chrome. The difference is you have to dig a bit deeper to see the info that is going to Microsoft. The "GET statements" are needed and are a part of HTTP.
If you are worried about your security while surfing the net then stay off the net. If you are doing something on the net you do not want people to see, they can see it. Does it mean that everyone has Wireshark running and they will be at your front door tomorrow making you explain your Internet surfing? Probably not.
I will go into greater detail in another blog about the kind of personal info that is floating around the Internet on you. You would be shocked and amazed what is out there and the kind of records that are kept on your surfing and how easy it is to trace it back to you.
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