The More Unusual Your Username the Easier it is For Marketers and Scammers to Track You

computer caution

Your unusual username could allow marketers and scammers to build a more complex picture of you.

By creating a distinctive username—and reusing it on multiple websites—you may be giving online marketers and scammers a simple way to track you. Four researchers from the French National Institute of Computer Science (INRIA) studied over 10 million usernames—collected from public Google profiles, eBay accounts, and several other sources. They found that about half of the usernames used on one site could be linked to another online profile, potentially allowing marketers and scammers to build a more complex picture the users.

 

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