Mozilla's Lightbeam tool will expose who is looking over your shoulder on the web

[gaiusmarius]

check this out, sounds interesting...

Mozilla's Lightbeam tool will expose who is looking over your shoulder on the web

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...ng-over-your-shoulder-on-the-web-8902269.html



Just who is looking over your shoulder when you browse the Internet? Tomorrow, web users will be given a new tool to shine a light on the commercial organisations which track your every movement online.

Lightbeam, a download produced by Mozilla, the US free software community behind the popular Firefox browser, claims to be a “watershed” moment in the battle for web transparency.

Everyone who browses the Internet leaves a digital trail used by advertisers to discover what your interests are.

Users who activate Lightbeam will be able to see a real-time visualisation of every site they visit and every third-party that is active on those sites, including commercial organisations which might potentially be sharing your data.

Mozilla wants users who install the Lightbeam add-on to Firefox, to crowd-source their data, to produce the first “big picture” view of web tracking, revealing which third-parties are most active.

Lightbeam promises a “Wizard of Oz” moment for the web, “where users collectively provide a way to pull back the curtains to see its inner workings,” Mozilla claimed.

Mark Surman, Mozilla’s executive director, said: “It’s a stake in the ground in terms of letting people know the ways they are being tracked. At Mozilla, we believe everyone should be in control of their user data and privacy and we want people to make informed decisions about their Web experience.”

Mozilla already offers users the ability to disable “cookies” - small files that download from websites onto a computer, allowing advertisers to target users based on their online activity – an option taken up by 18 per cent of UK Firefox users.

Lightbeam will reveal the source of the third-party adverts, scripts and images stored on a web page which are linked to servers in other domains. An expanding graph visualises the interactions between the sites a user intentionally visits and the third parties which may not be welcome.

Mozilla has come under “tremendous pressure” from trade bodies over its mission to bring transparency to the web, said Alex Fowler, the company’s Privacy Officer.

The software company said it was responding to increased privacy concerns following the revelation that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had tapped directly into the servers of Internet firms including Facebook, to track online communication in a surveillance programme.

see the rest of the article at the independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...ng-over-your-shoulder-on-the-web-8902269.html

 

[Slim Pickens]

Although I appreciate the opportunity to see who is following us around on the internet,the program won't do anything about blocking those applications.In the meantime maybe Ghostery and programs like it can help a little.

 

[Tony Aroma]

Collusion and Disconnect are two browser plugins that actually block your browser from sending other sites your info.

 

[babelfish]

Mozilla wants users who install the Lightbeam add-on to Firefox, to crowd-source their data, to produce the first “big picture” view of web tracking, revealing which third-parties are most active.
^-- this means that for this to work, the lightbeam project needs all ur datas. This can be ok on a clean machine.

Attached what it looks like when freshly installed and went to ebay (no login).

Then i attached what going to facebook, logging in and looking at a couple posts look like.

Then i went to imgur looked around for a few pics, and clicked T to tweet and F to facebook but didnt actually post. that's when it exploded.


A little trick: embed the attached photos >_>

All in all looks like a fun tool >:'P

 

[babelfish]

the independant is missing the vid from the mozilla blog post:
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/...education-for-users-open-data-for-publishers/

Lightbeam for Firefox: Privacy Education for Users & Open Data for Publishers

Alex Fowler OCT 25 2013

Shining a spotlight on online data tracking to help people understand the Web around them. That’s what we set out to accomplish a little more than a year ago as we began building on a popular, experimental add-on for Firefox called Collusion.

While revelations about government surveillance continue to stun people around the world, there’s another area of online data collection with its own complicated transparency challenges that remains important to users. And that’s the diverse range of third party companies that shape so much of our online experiences today from advertising to social sharing to personalization. Third parties are an integral part of the way the Internet works today. However, when we’re unable to understand the value these companies provide and make informed choices about their data collection practices, the result is a steady erosion of trust for all stakeholders.

Today, we’re proud to announce the release of the next iteration of Collusion, which we’re now calling Lightbeam for Firefox. The release happened at at this year’s MozFest.

[YOUTUBEIF]http://youtu.be/PvqGy9wz_wA[/YOUTUBEIF]

[YOUTUBEIF]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvqGy9wz_wA[/YOUTUBEIF]


Neither player wants to work right now so the direct link is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvqGy9wz_wA

Lightbeam is an add-on for Firefox that brings to light the array of first and third party companies people interact with everyday across the Web. Development of Lightbeam for Firefox is developed with support from the Ford Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and aided by faculty and students of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

How Lightbeam for Firefox works:

Visualize the Web: After you download and install the Lightbeam add-on to Firefox, it will begin to create a real time visualization of the websites you visit and all the third parties that are also active on those pages.
Analyze your connections: As your visualization grows, you can take a closer look into the relationships between the various first and third party sites that are stored in your data. You can also reset or save your data.
Lightbeam - open data: As a part of Lightbeam, we’re creating a big-picture view of Web tracking and of how first and third party sites are connected to each other. To help us, you can contribute your data to our Lightbeam database. Call it a Wizard of Oz moment for the Web, where users can collectively pull back the curtain see its inner-workings.
Support for publishers: During development of Lightbeam for Firefox, we worked with a number of leading online publishers about the value of the crowdsourced data. More work is needed, though. Once the open data set has time to mature, we’ll continue to explore how publishers can benefit from additional insights into the interaction of third parties on their sites.
At Mozilla, we believe that everyone should be in control of their user data and privacy, and we want to help you have the ability to make informed decisions about your Web experience. With the Lightbeam for Firefox add-on and open data, we’re providing a valuable community research platform to raise awareness, promote analysis and, ultimately, affect change in the area of privacy.

Lightbeam for Firefox is still in an early stage of development, this being only the second release of the add-on. All of the code is posted to Github and available for the Mozilla community to hack, expand and improve. Lightbeam is now live, and the add-on is available to download.

Lightbeam is being released at this year’s MozFest, Mozilla’s largest public-facing event. All throughout the weekend participants will be brainstorming and prototyping both technology and curriculum to help better educate web users about privacy.

 

[oldchuck]

I get icmag connected only to seedbay and utube. Most everything else is a tangle.

 

[supermanlives]

fuck em . I aint worried

 

[EclipseFour20]

Ahhh great minds think alike! My post in a different thread.

Hmmm...take that back, ICMag.com allows Seedboutique.com (third party site) to communicate with my computer without my permission.

BTW...foreignpolicy.com so far is the winner--it allowed 38 third party sites to communicate with my computer. I go to one site and 38 other sites know all about it....good to know!

 

[EclipseFour20]

Get it here....https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=collusion&appver=24.0&platform=windows

or here....https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lightbeam/?src=search

 

[username474]

We still have to applaud their effort.

 

[babelfish]

they have an AMA today
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pbjtw/we_are_the_mozilla_team_who_have_been_working_on/