# Browsing behavior exposes identities on the Web

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.15489 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15489/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Dec 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Network-Level Prompt and Trait Leakage in Local Research Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.20282/) (2025)
- [Behavioral Fingerprinting and Navigation Prediction in Web Browsing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18273/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

How easy is it to uniquely identify a person based solely on their web browsing behavior? Here we show that when people navigate the Web, their online traces produce fingerprints that identify them. Merely the four most visited web domains are enough to identify 95% of the individuals. These digital fingerprints are stable and render high re-identifiability. We demonstrate that we can re-identify 80% of the individuals in separate time slices of data. Such a privacy threat persists even with limited information about individuals' browsing behavior, reinforcing existing concerns around online privacy.