Online privacy issues are something we’re always conscious about in working on our projects. We gain useful insights into our products by tracking web visitors using Google Analytics, but these same techniques can also be used to maliciously track visitors online.
Electronic Frontier Foundation released a tool that analyzes how unique your browser fingerprint is. I found it quite interesting that all three browsers on my work computer had unique fingerprints among the 104,584 tests that the site had conducted thus far.
In particular it’s interesting to see how little information needs to be looked at to be unique. For instance, in Internet Explorer my User Agent string by itself is unique among all of the tests. The same applies to my combination of browser plugin versions. In Firefox my User Agent string appears in 1 out of 23.62 browsers, but my browser plugin combination is unique across all of the tests conducted thus far.
How do your browsers compare? Panopticlick
The New York Times has an interesting collection of maps of Netflix rental popularity for major cities (unfortunately not for Philadelphia). I wonder how much Netflix takes geography into account with their recommendation system.
A Peek Into Netflix Queues
Nonprofit technology is about eyeballs — attracting eyeballs, engaging eyeballs, and reporting on eyeballs. Whether the goal is to raise funds, advocate for a cause, or engage constituents, it is all about eyeballs. And here is the thing, we don’t spend enough time figuring out how to analyze those eyeballs.
Read the full post on NTEN’s blog: Technology is all about the Eyeballs
I wanted to share a quick note that we launched RedistrictingTheNation.com today.
Redistricting the Nation allows the public to:
- Enter their address (nation-wide) and view the “shape” of their federal, state, and local election districts.
- Learn who is in charge of drawing the boundaries of their election districts (e.g., independent commissions or elected representatives).
- Compare the “compactness” scores of their election district to other, similar districts (less compact and unusually shaped districts are more likely to be gerrymandered).
- Draw new district boundaries on a map and generate compactness scores for the new district.
RedistrictingTheNation.com Screenshot
Articles by Jeremy Heffner
