Survey of Web Tracking

Web tracking has become a research hotspot under the background of information age, and it is an important means for user identification and behavior analysis. By following up the research achievements in this field, we analyze the current status of researches and development situation in the field of Web tracking from the aspects of tracking technology or defense technology. Firstly, we introduce the current researches according to the implementation of technology, after dividing the Web tracking into storage tracking technology and fingerprint tracking technology. Secondly, according to the tracking ability of different technologies, we divide Web tracking technology into three different levels: single-browser tracking, cross-browser tracking and cross-device tracking, then we analyze and discuss the features’ acquisition technology and attribute characteristics of the features, expound the relationship among features, correlation technology and the scope of tracking technology. From the perspective of Web tracking defense technology, we describe the different technology implementation characteristics and defense countermeasures of defense of browser extension, browser-embedded defense, defense framework tools and other mechanisms, defense countermeasures or environment. Finally, we summarize the current research situation in the field of Web tracking, targetedly analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Web tracking technology and the Web defense technology, and point out the current problems and possible development directions in this field.