Michael Cunningham
Apr 28, 2026
From left: CyLab researchers, Saranya Vijayakumar, Norman Sadeh, and Matt Fredrikson conducted research on privacy systems built around grouping users by broad behavioral “topics” rather than individual identifiers.
As major technology companies race to replace traditional online tracking tools with systems marketed as more privacy-conscious, new CyLab research suggests that some of those alternatives may offer far less protection than advertised.
In a recent study, CyLab researchers found that privacy systems built around grouping users by broad behavioral “topics” rather than individual identifiers can still leave people surprisingly vulnerable to re-identification when modern artificial intelligence models analyze behavior over time.
