In an attempt to educate the public about just how “private” its private data is, Canadian coder Holden Karau built Web2.0collage. The project, an online-art-installation-cum-privacy-busting app, illustrates how easy it is for nefarious web sites to sniff your browser history and see which sites you’ve visited. With one click, Karau’s script (which he makes public) goes to work searching through your browser history, making a collage of favicons from various Web 2.0 sites to which you’ve been. Here’s mine: I spot Bing, YouTube, Fark, Kotaku, Pandora and more.

The software uses a predetermined list of sites to build its images, so your late-night gambling and porn habits won’t show up — but Gawker and Amazon will. If you’re concerned about your privacy, don’t expect to feel better when you read the site’s privacy policy. It says, rather succinctly, that “nothing is private” on the Internet and your data could well end up on The Pirate Bay. The site also points out that the data web2.0collage finds in your browser history could be easily be found by any web site you visit.

In the end, the project is a clever way to illustrate just how open your web browser is, while avoiding (mostly) the doom and gloom of some other privacy advocates.

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