A new study reveals those in authority can identify you in as little as 30 minutes based solely on your general browsing habits on the internet.

The study by the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) reveals your browsing behavior is a unique digital signature that can also indicate your personality. It noted that a person's general online browsing behavior can also reflect his choices and preferences, which are largely controlled by his unique psychological characteristics.

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Analysis of the study data revealed strong links between a browser's personality and browsing behavior. For example, an individual's level of conscientiousness could be determined by his spending just 30 minutes online.

"Our research suggests a person's personality traits can be deduced by their general internet usage," said Dr. Ikusan Adeyemi, a research scholar at UTM and lead author of the study.

"This differs from other studies that have only looked at the use of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter."

This study recruited volunteers from UTM and monitored their internet usage, including the duration of their internet sessions and number of websites browsed. Volunteers also took a test to reveal their personality characteristics in five categories: openness to new experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Dr. Adeyemi said the study shows these behavioral signatures do exist and opens up new research into understanding online behavior.

"Online marketing organizations can use our findings to reliably tailor their product to a specific audience; it can be used to develop an intelligent internet service that can predict and personalize a user's experience," said Dr. Adeyami.

"It can also be used as a complementary way of increasing security for online identification and authentication. Law enforcement agencies can also apply our findings in the investigation of online crime cases."

He noted that research linking personality traits to internet use typically focuses on social media. His study is one of the first to show these personality traits can also be discovered by suggests a person's general internet usage.

Dr. Adeyami and his UTM colleagues are expanding their research to reveal more patterns across the five personality traits investigated. They hope this new investigation will help map an individual's personality signature and increase the understanding of online behavior.

UTM is a public research university and a research-intensive university in engineering, science and technology located in Kuala Lumpur and in Johor Bahru, the southern city in Iskandar Malaysia, the main development area in Johor.

UTM is a graduate-focused university with 56% of its student population consisting of postgraduate students, the highest in Malaysia. As of 2015, UTM had over 5,000 international students from some 60 countries, the highest among research universities in Malaysia.

TagsInternet, browsing habits, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Dr. Ikusan Adeyemi