Researchers have built a new system that protects internet users’ privacy while increasing the flexibility for web developers to build web applications that combine data from different web sites, dramatically improving the safety of surfing the web. The system called “Confinement with Origin Web Labels” (COWL) works with Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome web browsers and prevents malicious codes in websites from leaking sensitive information to unauthorized parties.
One of the biggest threats to your online privacy is the mixture of code that you’ll find on some websites. It’s all too easy for a legit-looking page to hide data-stealing code, or for innocent sites to accidentally expose your info. If Google, Mozilla and researchers have their way, though, you won’t have to worry quite so much about where that info is going. Their new COWL (Confinement with Origin Web Labels) system prevents JavaScript from sharing data with outside websites that aren’t explicitly approved; even when the data gets the all-clear, it won’t necessarily spread anywhere else. In theory, it should be harder for ne’er-do-wells to hijack a page and grab sensitive content without your knowledge, or simply for you to lose control of where that content goes.
