Lightbeam for Firefox 1.2.1.1 - See who’s tracking you online
Lightbeam is a Firefox add-on that uses interactive visualizations to show you the first and third party sites you interact with on the Web. As you browse, Lightbeam reveals the full depth of the Web today, including parts that are not transparent to the average user.
About this Lightbeam Add-on
Using interactive visualizations, Lightbeam enables you to see the first and third party sites you interact with on the Web. As you browse, Lightbeam reveals the full depth of the Web today, including parts that are not transparent to the average user. Using two distinct interactive graphic representations — Graph and List — Lightbeam enables you to examine individual third parties over time and space, identify where they connect to your online activity and provides ways for you to engage with this unique view of the Web.
How Lightbeam Works
When you activate Lightbeam and visit a website, sometimes called the first party, the add-on creates a real time visualization of all the third parties that are active on that page. The default visualization is called the Graph view. As you then browse to a second site, the add-on highlights the third parties that are also active there and shows which third parties have seen you at both sites. The visualization grows with every site you visit and every request made from your browser. In addition to the Graph view, you can also see your data in a List view to drill down into individual sites.
How is my information stored?
All info generated and used for Lightbeam’s visualizations and features are only stored locally on your computer. You can save a copy of your connection history at any time, which is also where you can see the specific data collected by the add-on. You may also reset Lightbeam to erase your locally stored connection history, disable it to stop data collection or uninstall it to instantly remove all locally stored data related to Lightbeam. Additional information related to Lightbeam’s file format is available here
The origins of Lightbeam
Lightbeam began in July 2011 as Collusion, a personal project by Mozilla software developer Atul Varma. Inspired by the book The Filter Bubble, Atul created an experimental add-on to visualize browsing behavior and data collection on the Web.
In February 2012, Gary Kovacs, Mozilla CEO at the time, introduced the Collusion add-on in a TED talk (now one of the most watched TED talks) about exposing online tracking.
In September 2012, Mozilla joined forces with students at Emily Carr University of Art + Design to develop and implement visualizations for the add-on. With the support of the Ford Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Collusion has been re-imagined as Lightbeam and was launched in the fall of 2013.
To read more about the collaboration, please visit http://www.simcentre.ca
About this Lightbeam Add-on
Using interactive visualizations, Lightbeam enables you to see the first and third party sites you interact with on the Web. As you browse, Lightbeam reveals the full depth of the Web today, including parts that are not transparent to the average user. Using two distinct interactive graphic representations — Graph and List — Lightbeam enables you to examine individual third parties over time and space, identify where they connect to your online activity and provides ways for you to engage with this unique view of the Web.
How Lightbeam Works
When you activate Lightbeam and visit a website, sometimes called the first party, the add-on creates a real time visualization of all the third parties that are active on that page. The default visualization is called the Graph view. As you then browse to a second site, the add-on highlights the third parties that are also active there and shows which third parties have seen you at both sites. The visualization grows with every site you visit and every request made from your browser. In addition to the Graph view, you can also see your data in a List view to drill down into individual sites.
How is my information stored?
All info generated and used for Lightbeam’s visualizations and features are only stored locally on your computer. You can save a copy of your connection history at any time, which is also where you can see the specific data collected by the add-on. You may also reset Lightbeam to erase your locally stored connection history, disable it to stop data collection or uninstall it to instantly remove all locally stored data related to Lightbeam. Additional information related to Lightbeam’s file format is available here
The origins of Lightbeam
Lightbeam began in July 2011 as Collusion, a personal project by Mozilla software developer Atul Varma. Inspired by the book The Filter Bubble, Atul created an experimental add-on to visualize browsing behavior and data collection on the Web.
In February 2012, Gary Kovacs, Mozilla CEO at the time, introduced the Collusion add-on in a TED talk (now one of the most watched TED talks) about exposing online tracking.
In September 2012, Mozilla joined forces with students at Emily Carr University of Art + Design to develop and implement visualizations for the add-on. With the support of the Ford Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Collusion has been re-imagined as Lightbeam and was launched in the fall of 2013.
To read more about the collaboration, please visit http://www.simcentre.ca
How to used ?
- Open the Lightbeam tab by clicking the logo in the Toolbar.
- Lightbeam starts recording connections as soon as it's installed. If you open it now, you'll see a blank screen because nothing's been recorded yet.
- To start visualizing your online interactions, open a new tab, navigate to a site, and then check back to the Lightbeam tab to see how your connections graph appears.
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