rusal84 / jsmousetracker

A javascript proof-of-concept for tracking a user's mouse position.

MouseTracking

A project that aims to show that companies can track your mouse movements to track and profile you

About

Javascript can retrieve the location of the mouse in a mousemove event. With this data, the X and the Y axis of the mouse cursor, a company can get information about which content you are looking at in which order. This way the company can improve the position of ads on the webpage, but also can identify how your brain works based on these movements. They can for example see if you interact with content that specifically heterosexual males will focus on. This information is sensitive as it can be used to manipulate you. The project proofs this by providing a concept on how a company uses this technology.

The project

The project consists of a webpage that the user can visit. When the user moves the mouse the location of the mouse will be visible in the javascript console log. To view the console log in most common browsers one can press F12.

The future

To prevent yourself from leaking this rather sensitive data a chrome plugin can be written that blocks all scripts used to identify the position of the mouse, however this may prevent some HTML5 games from working.