I Know What You Bought Last Summer: Investigating User Data Leakage in E-Commerce Platforms

Ioannis Vlachogiannakis, Ioannis Vlachogiannakis, Emmanouil Papadogiannakis, Emmanouil Papadogiannakis, Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Nicolas Kourtellis, Evangelos Markatos, Evangelos Markatos

2025

Abstract

In the digital age, e-commerce has transformed the way consumers shop, offering convenience and accessibility. Nevertheless, concerns about the privacy and security of personal information shared on these platforms have risen. In this work, we investigate user privacy violations, noting the risks of data leakage to third-party entities. Utilizing a semi-automated data collection approach, we examine a selection of popular online e-shops, revealing that nearly 30% of them violate user privacy by disclosing personal information to third parties. We unveil how minimal user interaction across multiple e-commerce websites can result in a comprehensive privacy breach. We observe significant data-sharing patterns with platforms like Facebook, which use personal information to build user profiles and link them to social media accounts.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Vlachogiannakis I., Papadogiannakis E., Papadopoulos P., Kourtellis N. and Markatos E. (2025). I Know What You Bought Last Summer: Investigating User Data Leakage in E-Commerce Platforms. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT; ISBN 978-989-758-760-3, SciTePress, pages 392-399. DOI: 10.5220/0013519000003979

in Bibtex Style

@conference{secrypt25,
author={Ioannis Vlachogiannakis and Emmanouil Papadogiannakis and Panagiotis Papadopoulos and Nicolas Kourtellis and Evangelos Markatos},
title={I Know What You Bought Last Summer: Investigating User Data Leakage in E-Commerce Platforms},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT},
year={2025},
pages={392-399},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013519000003979},
isbn={978-989-758-760-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT
TI - I Know What You Bought Last Summer: Investigating User Data Leakage in E-Commerce Platforms
SN - 978-989-758-760-3
AU - Vlachogiannakis I.
AU - Papadogiannakis E.
AU - Papadopoulos P.
AU - Kourtellis N.
AU - Markatos E.
PY - 2025
SP - 392
EP - 399
DO - 10.5220/0013519000003979
PB - SciTePress