See who’s tracking you online with Mozilla's LightBeam addon for Firefox

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Purshu_Pro

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Aug 3, 2013
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Shine a Light on Who’s Watching You
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.

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How Lightbeam Works
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Download and run the Lightbeam add-on in your Firefox browser.

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Lightbeam will create a record of events for every site you visit and every third party site that is stored locally on your browser.

3>>
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Lightbeam visually graphs these events to highlight the interactions between sites you intentionally visit and the third parties.

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Lightbeam will continue to add to your graph as you browse the Web. You can stop Lightbeam at any time by disabling it or uninstalling the add-on. Your Lightbeam data can be easily saved or deleted.


Tracking & privacy
Not all tracking is bad. Many services rely on user data to provide relevant content and enhance your online experience. But tracking can happen without the user’s knowledge. That’s not okay for some. It should be you who decides when, how and if you want your browsing data to be shared. We recognize the importance of transparency and our mission is all about empowering users — both with tools and information. About Lightbeam »

Explore the database
In the Lightbeam database, you will be able to browse first and third-party connection data uploaded by donors who use the Lightbeam add-on. We’re building this crowd-sourced directory to encourage users to visualize the state of tracking as an aggregate and to examine relationships that exist on the Web.

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Visualize your data
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.

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Analyze your connections
As your visualizations grow, 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 at any time.

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Contribute your data
As a part of Lightbeam, we are creating a big-picture view of Internet tracking and of how first and third party sites are connected. To help us, you can contribute your data to our Lightbeam database.

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Purshu_Pro

Level 29
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Aug 3, 2013
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Yes I believe compared to Ghostery and Other Tracking Protectors this still needs a lot of development. They must not be compromised for any purpose.
 

jamescv7

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Mar 15, 2011
13,070
Its better if it does block those trackers than to show only the trackers as a purpose for analyze. ;)
 
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I

illumination

Have not tried this for some time, but one did have the ability to block any trackers, of course this could result in website problems like any other program that blocks..
 

bitbizket

Level 3
Jul 26, 2011
250
I don't trust this extension plus its pretty much useless.

Lightbeam is a tracker by itself and on default the data collected are stored in the local browser (you have the option to submit them to Mozilla). For privacy and security reasons it doesn't makes any sense to store any of the data in the browser in the first place.

Another thing i noticed Lightbeam requires the browser's referrer header to be enabled if not it won't work correctly.
Personally i have blocked/spoof from sending referrer headers. LoL

Lightbeam allows blocking of third party tracker to do them manually for each one.
Too troublesome to configure, feels buggy and have some effects of slowing down my browser.

For fighting against tracker etc. i found these excellent extensions to be a must.
NoScript, Disconnect and Random Agent Spoofer inside a VPN.

Thanks
 
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