Websites have a new way to spy on visitors: analyzing their SSD activity
Websites have developed a new method to track visitors by analyzing their solid-state drive (SSD) activity. This technique, known as FROST, allows sites to monitor other open tabs and applications on a user's device without any interaction required from the visitor. While it has limitations, researchers suggest that browser makers implement measures to mitigate this privacy risk.
- ▪FROST stands for fingerprinting remotely using OPFS-based SSD timing.
- ▪The technique exploits a side channel to measure I/O operations of the SSD.
- ▪It can determine what websites and apps are open on a visitor's device.
- ▪FROST runs exclusively in the browser using JavaScript.
- ▪To prevent FROST attacks, users are advised to close unnecessary tabs.
2 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 22 hours. All of the coverage we found sits in one bucket: centre. That one-sidedness is itself worth noticing.
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Record
| Original publisher | Ars Technica |
| Canonical URL | https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/websites-have-a-new-way-to-spy-on-visitors-analyzing-their-ssd-activity/ |
| Publication time | Wed, 27 May 2026 20:56:03 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-27T21:08:04.683Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-27T21:08:04.683Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | Z3emjji0NRu- · 2 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
ADVANCES IN SNOOPING Websites have a new way to spy on visitors: analyzing their SSD activity Telltale SSD activity can be measured in the browser using simple JavaScript. Dan Goodin – May 27, 2026 4:56 pm | 3 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Over the decades, there has been no shortage of sites using clever techniques to covertly track visitors’ browsing histories, device fingerprints, and log keystrokes and mouse movements in real time. Even Meta and Yandex were recently caught joining in the privacy-invasive free-for-all. Now sites have a new way to spy on their visitors: measuring subtle interactions with their solid-state drives.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Ars Technica.
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