In the criminal trial of the university student who hacked into vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s e-mail account during the 2008 campaign, federal prosecutors called 4chan.org founder Christopher Poole to, among other things, explain to the jury the meaning of internet slang terms such as “lurkers,” “peeps,” “troll,” and “rickrolling.”[FOOTNOTE 1] This high-profile case demonstrates how words and phrases originating from new technology ultimately make their way into the courtroom. The latest courtroom entry is “history sniffing.”
History sniffing is a website practice that aims to circumvent computer privacy. A company can ascertain a history of websites visited with a web browser by surreptitiously running code inside the browser. The code reports the history back to the company, which creates a user profile — all without an individual’s knowledge or consent. Companies use history sniffing to target advertising based on a person’s interests, a phenomenon known as “behavioral advertising.”[FOOTNOTE 2]
