Can your PC's hardware identify you online?

[Moontrash]

can a specific piece of hardware like say a....video card or processor or motherboard...ID you while your online? Maybe send info or data back to their servers. If you were to purchase a laptop say...and you bought it with a CC...that laptop has a serial number...since the laptop itself has a serial thats not a big deal because already you have to deal with the company for warranty purposes...but can the hardware inside ID you as you surf? Is the hardware linked with that serial number etc...and does it come back to you

(this also goes for hardware media players or tv's or BLu Ray players etc that have online capability)

[yoda313]

I think that is being a bit paranoid.

I'm pretty sure that stuff doesn't have reporting ability.

As for the media players that is done with user ids. At least my experience with the xbox 360 and ps3 are like that. You create a user id and then your account is tied to that. You have a password for the account. You can add money (be it dollars for the ps3 or microsoft points for the 360) either directly on the console (using the controller in the add funds section) or online through the playstation or xbox website. (edit - oh and you can format the harddrives. I did that with the WII when I traded it in the other year. THat way your information isn't on there anymore - and at least with the 360 clam shell designs you can remove the harddrive completely - the ps3 is more difficult as it is internal but removeable - I don't know how the new 360 slim harddrives come out but I'm sure they do)

I have to imagine its the same for the smart bluray players and the newer wdtv models that have internet ability (I have a gen 1 wdtv that doesn't have a net connection so I can't confirm how that works).

What you might be thinking of is a windows activation protocol that would kick in if too much hardware was changed on the motherboard. You would then have to get it activated again with microsoft. However I don't believe it would be possible for it to store your info on the unit - correction anythings possible but I don't think they would do that.

Basically you'd have to destroy your old equipment instead of giving it to somebody else. I don't think I've heard of this happening.

[Moontrash]

for me it's not about being paranoid. I just remembered the other day...quite a few years back...that Intel had those "Pentium" class processors first released and there was a function where the chip could "call home" online...the backlash was quite severe and they turned this function off or discontinued it etc. I just had a brain function and thought....do these individual hardware pieces have identifying capabilities. Like if you were to build a pc...each component has it's own serial but has it ever been where each component could identify the purchasee just by the serial number etc...do they have a "call home" function

just a wonder

[yoda313]

As far as I know they are all "dummy" read only devices (I mean as far as reaching out on their own I can't see how - real espionage stuff if they could - I could just see the US military or any other government agency buying a computer system that would contact a website on its own accord). I don't think a pci sound card could suddenly go online and call soundblaster - edit - sorry I should have said creative labs but I'm sure everyone knew what I meant

[jagabo]

Many components inside your computer have unique ID numbers: the CPU, hard drive, network adapter, etc. Browsers don't routinely report them but if you allow sites to install software it's possible for them to get those ID numbers. Even without those unique ID numbers it's possible for sites to identify your computer with fairly good accuracy by the information they can get from just the browser.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent

And, of course, if you allow sites to use cookies they can identify you by correlating cookies from different sites.

[aedipuss]

about as far as id's online can go, is the network card in your computer has a unique mac number associated with the ip you are using. your isp can be forced to give you up with a court order. (in the u.s.)

[jagabo]

If you're behind a router using NAT your ISP doesn't see your computer's NIC's MAC address, they see the router's MAC address. So they can't identify your computer, only the router. Of course, that's good enough, for law enforcement. They'll just come into your house and take all your computers...