A lot of sites that you might want to subscribe to or get information from would require you to fill out a form, and the information you would include in this form would be your email address, name, phone number as well as various other pieces of data. Most people assume that a website would not get their information until they press the submit button on the form, but in spite of the fact that this is the case many sites use key loggers to see what you type.
Hence, even if you don’t hit the submit button, a lot of websites might still be able to see what you had been typing with all things having been considered and taken into account. Research conducted by universities in Lausanne and Radboud has revealed that around 2% of the top 100,000 websites spy on users with key loggers that allow them to get their email address whether or not they submit the form.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that just under 2,000 websites, or 1,844 to be precise, did this for European users. Things are even worse for American users, with around 2,950 sites doing the same for them. What’s even worse is that over 50 sites actually detect user passwords before form submission by using key loggers, and that is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making password leaks even worse than they already are.
The existence of so many major sites that use key loggers is a rather unfortunate development, since users that are visiting these sites would not expect them to use such underhanded techniques. One would assume that only low ranking sites or scammers would try to use key loggers, so these revelations might have a negative impact on how major websites are perceived from a security perspective.
This research also reveals just how effective Europe’s GDRP policies are. Thanks to the existence of these policies, there were over a thousand fewer websites that were able to use key loggers for European users.
The US, on the other hand, does not have data protection laws that are quite so comprehensive. This gives websites a free hand to use key loggers, and that is why almost 3% of the top 100,000 websites in the world mine data from users without first waiting for them to submit their form. Work needs to be done to remedy this issue otherwise it might get out of hand before too long and that would be dangerous.
Read next: Mobile Gaming Revenues for Q1 2022 See 6% YoY Decline
Hence, even if you don’t hit the submit button, a lot of websites might still be able to see what you had been typing with all things having been considered and taken into account. Research conducted by universities in Lausanne and Radboud has revealed that around 2% of the top 100,000 websites spy on users with key loggers that allow them to get their email address whether or not they submit the form.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that just under 2,000 websites, or 1,844 to be precise, did this for European users. Things are even worse for American users, with around 2,950 sites doing the same for them. What’s even worse is that over 50 sites actually detect user passwords before form submission by using key loggers, and that is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making password leaks even worse than they already are.
The existence of so many major sites that use key loggers is a rather unfortunate development, since users that are visiting these sites would not expect them to use such underhanded techniques. One would assume that only low ranking sites or scammers would try to use key loggers, so these revelations might have a negative impact on how major websites are perceived from a security perspective.
This research also reveals just how effective Europe’s GDRP policies are. Thanks to the existence of these policies, there were over a thousand fewer websites that were able to use key loggers for European users.
The US, on the other hand, does not have data protection laws that are quite so comprehensive. This gives websites a free hand to use key loggers, and that is why almost 3% of the top 100,000 websites in the world mine data from users without first waiting for them to submit their form. Work needs to be done to remedy this issue otherwise it might get out of hand before too long and that would be dangerous.
Read next: Mobile Gaming Revenues for Q1 2022 See 6% YoY Decline
