Thousands of well-known websites on the Internet use a keylogger function to record what you type on the computer. Here we tell you which sites you should avoid and how you can protect yourself.
Reserving a hotel room, booking a ticket or registering with a social platform: It is almost always necessary to enter your e-mail address and a password. So far, so no problems. After all, you get something in return.
But did you know that among the top 100,000 websites in the world, thousands of providers record your entries before you click the confirm button? Researchers found this out during an analysis.
This means that even if you decide not to register or book again, the websites could have saved your email and associated passwords. We show how you can effectively prevent this.
Thousands of websites are careless with your data
What’s happening in the background? Basically, the more than 1,800 websites that have read the e-mail addresses of EU citizens use nothing more than a keylogger. This records everything that is typed on the keyboard – without your consent.
Well-known websites that leaked mail addresses in the EU included:
- usatoday.com
- trello.com
- independent.co.uk
- shopify.com
- marriott.com
- newsweek.com
It is best to avoid these – luckily they are not German providers with the de domain. But other countries would actually have to comply with the EU data protection regulation.
Also dramatic: The Russian service Yandex is at the forefront of password leaks in the EU. So beware of registering there.
Strategies against the keyloggers
The simplest method is not to visit the sites in question in the first place. These can be found in detail on the study website. There you will also find short video clips demonstrating the recording of data in real time.
The researchers also offer an experimental add-on called LeakInspector, which is not yet officially available for Firefox or Chrome.
In general, it is wise to protect yourself against keyloggers on the Internet. You can therefore simply use the pre-installed Windows on-screen keyboard to enter your e-mail address and password. You enter the numbers and letters with a mouse click, which keyloggers do not record.
Alternatively, you can use a free password manager like KeePassXC, where you simply copy and paste your information into the form field – this way a keylogger will only recognize “CTRL+V” as input.