Articles

Web Browsers

Each day about 20% of this planet’s population—just over 1.2 billion humans—use the Internet to gather and share information or to execute some form of online transaction. Leading analysts claim that each of us spends on average more than 30 hours a month connected to the Internet, visiting over 1,500 pages from about 70 different Web sites. To carry out this massive online activity we employ only a handful of client applications, which split the global market share of Internet browsers roughly as follows : Internet Explorer (78%), FireFox (15%), Safari (5%), Opera (1.2%), Netscape (0.8%).

Notwithstanding personal choices based on preferences for feature sets, usability, performance or interface design, all Web browsers share the same basic architectural building blocks among which, it is fair to say, data and identity security is not one of the cornerstones. The reasons for this apparent lack of concern for security in the browsers’ blueprints are in part historical (security threats have greatly evolved and expanded since the first appearance of the Internet), in part technical (security features require careful and more expensive a priori design) and in part legal/political (embedding strong encryption and privacy tools may first require social acceptance and proper legal framing). Be that as it may, the reality for today’s Internet users is still that of an uphill battle against a multitude of threats to the privacy of their surfing data and of their online identities.

At the risk of oversimplifying such a multifaceted issue, let us first focus on two of the main security concerns for Internet users: local storage and network identity. The main assumption is that no information on Internet activity and/or online identity should be disclosed without the user’s prior authorization and knowledge. It is interesting to note that participants in focus groups on Internet usage often find such requirements too strong or even unnecessary until they are presented with the list of Web pages, form entries and passwords gathered during their previous navigation session. When the harsh reality of privacy infringement hits the soft spot of one’s own personal sphere, people tend to think again about the need for an adequate protection of their Internet activity.

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